Mandaue City Gives Way to National Government on CICC

Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes said the Mandaue City Government will no longer buy the abandoned Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) after the National Government expressed intent to rehabilitate it.

He said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has asked the city and the Cebu provincial government to submit a program of works for the rehabilitation of the CICC, which was damaged by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

“We’ve been having meetings. The president wants to get this project done as soon as possible,” he said.

Cortes said President Benigno S. Aquino III suggested that the National Government rehabilitate the building when he was in Mandaue City last May 1 to attend Labor Day activities.

He brought up the idea while in a furniture exhibit organized by the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) inside the J Centre mall in Mandaue City.

Cortes said the plan is to make the CICC a showroom for Cebu-made products.

He said he doesn’t mind letting go of the city’s original plan to make the CICC into the Mandaue Investment Promotions Action Center, where products made in the city will be showcased.

“Let’s stop thinking only about ourselves. Let’s look at the bigger picture,” he said.

The CICC was constructed for the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Cebu in 2007.

It was a joint venture between the Mandaue city government, which owns the lot, and the Province, which spent more than PHP800 million to construct the building. (PNA) CTB/EB/SSC