Province prepares to sell CICC to Mandaue

Capitol to sell CICC to Mandaue City at P300M, payable in three years

Fourteen out of 16 members of the Cebu Provincial Board voted yesterday to terminate the Province’s joint venture agreement with Mandaue City on the management of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).

This will pave the way for the CICC’s sale, also to Mandaue City, for P300 million.

Ten years ago, it was in the CICC where Cebu hosted some meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the first time. Plans to sell it surfaced after it suffered damage during a quake and typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

The Cebu Provincial Board agreed to terminate the joint venture agreement between the Province and the Mandaue City Government to make way for the sale of the Cebu International Convention Center.

During the PB’s regular session yesterday, 14 out of 16 Provincial Board members voted to terminate the joint venture agreement.

Only PB Members Victoria Corominas-Toribio and Raul Bacaltos were absent during the session yesterday.

The resolution to terminate the joint venture agreement was penned by PB Member Celestino “Tining” Martinez III, who chairs the committee on provincial and municipal-owned properties.

With the termination of the agreement, the Province can now sell the CICC to the Mandaue City Government for P300 million.

Martinez said once both LGUs will sign the mutual termination agreement, the Mandaue City Government will pay a P75-million downpayment. The balance will be paid in tranches within three years.

Martinez told reporters that they will submit the approved resolution to the executive de- partment before the signing of the mutual termination agreement and the contract to sell the CICC.

In 2006, former Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and the late Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano signed a joint venture agreement to jointly manage the CICC.

As to the ongoing cases surrounding the CICC, the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas assured that the proposed sale of the facility won’t affect the status of the cases.

In his letter to Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, Paul Clemente, Ombudsman for the Visayas, said any legitimate developmental program involving the CICC to be run by both LGUs and any national government agency cannot affect its ongoing cases./

Sale of CICC won’t affect ongoing cases, the Office of the Ombudsman assures.