Engineer Ernesto Viernes, head of the CICC-Project Monitoring Office, made the declaration yesterday adding that even the leaks have been solved already and underwent actual tests during the rains in the past days.
Leaks of the CICC roofing were discovered when torrential rains from typhoon Seniang seeped and flooded the building interior, days before the scheduled summit. The typhoon was also the publicized reason that prompted organizers to postpone the event to January next year.
Viernes said the CICC is now ready for the rescheduled Asean Summit and the East Asia Summit, tentatively set either January 8-13 or January 10-15, whichever will be feasible to the participating heads of state.
The entry to CICC is now barred to unauthorized people, and its rooms and exhibition halls are now locked with only janitorial personnel of the Mandaue Integrated Manpower Service left inside to do the cleaning.
Some furniture, including the two sets lent by internationally renowned designer Kenneth Cobonpue, were already pulled out of the building leaving only those that member-companies of the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation also lent for the December summit.
Products from other towns, brought in for the supposed trade exhibition coinciding with the summit, are still kept inside, and that other furniture sets from volunteer suppliers will be replaced with other sets for the January summit.
There are no changes in the stringent security measures enforced by the Capitol security force and Mandaue City policemen detailed inside and outside the CICC.
Capitol consultant, lawyer Pablo John Garcia, earlier said that there has not been any need for changes in the CICC set-up because the building was built to be flexible for whatever event to be held there.
With the Asean Summit and the East Asia Summit, and any other activity later on, the CICC was designed not only as a convention center but also as an exhibition center, he said.
The CICC was constructed with a P515-million outlay and both Governor Gwen Garcia and Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez said it is by far the most inexpensive but world-class convention center in the country. - Cristina C. Birondo