Mandaue City, Province end CICC agreement
The Mandaue City Government plans to hire a private contractor to help develop and manage the property where the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) currently stands.
Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing made the announcement just after he and Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III terminated the joint venture agreement ( JVA) between the two local government units for the construction of the CICC yesterday.
In a press conference, Quisumbing said he plans to convert the CICC into a center of “urban renewal” in the North Reclamation Area.
Based on the mutual termination of the JVA, the Province agreed to sell CICC and the property where it was constructed to the Mandaue City Government for P300 million.
Mandaue City will pay the Province P200 million as partial or initial payment.
The remaining P100 million will be paid by the City on June 30, 2018.
The property, however, will remain under the name of the Province until the City will be able to pay the P300 million in full.
The Province assured the City that CICC is neither subject nor involved in any pending or threatened litigation or case.
Even if there are pending cases filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against former Cebu governor now Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia (Cebu, 3rd District) and other government officials over the construction of CICC, the anti- graft office previously said, though, that these should not “impede any legitimate development program involving CICC.”
The CICC was built in 2006 during the first term of Garcia for the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in 2007.
Last July 31, 2012, Ombudsman Conchita-Carpio Morales approved the filing of cases against Garcia and six other Capitol officials for allegedly violating Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act in the construction of CICC.
“Such matters would not have any diminishing effect on the right of the Province and Mandaue City to use CICC and the land on which the facility was built...for the general wel- fare of their constituents,” Deputy Ombdusman for the Visayas Paul Elmer Clemente had said.
Although the JVA was terminated, Davide said that personnel from the Capitol will continue to stay at the CICC until December this year to clear the facility of the Province’s properties such as furniture and supplies.
Davide said the Province will also shoulder the expenses of fielding guards and utility personnel who will help safeguard the CICC.
As for the fire victims living at the CICC compound, Quisumbing said they will soon be transferred to a relocation site. /