CEBU, Philippines - Mandaue City Chamber of Commerce and Industry leaders are hoping that President Benigno Aquino will visit their booth at the World Trade Center Manila on November 11 so they can appeal to him to release the fund for the repair of the Cebu International Convention Center.
“That’s the time we tell him to release the budget for CICC (rehabilitation),” said Clayton Tugonon of MCCI.
Tugonon is also chairman of Mandaue Expo which will hold an exhibit of all Mandaue products at WTC’s media lounge on November 12 to 19.
The exhibit area will reportedly house at least 3,000 international media personalities who will be covering the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Summit.
Tugonon said from the information they got, they were told to prepare everything on November 11. And being the host country, Aquino will likely inspect the site a day before the first meeting will start.
He said if it happens and the president will pass by their booth, he will talk to him to raise the anticipated CICC repair.
Tugonon said if the CICC is repaired and be made a ve-nue for exhibits, it will not only help local manufacturers but the entire Cebu, from taxi drivers to every person who will benefit once it becomes a robust place for trading.
“They don’t know what we can do,” he said in reference to product manufacturers in Mandaue.
The expo in Manila is set to showcase local products from Mandaue.
Asked of their reaction on Governor Hilario Davide III’s pronouncement that he will not spend a dime to repair the mammoth structure at the North Reclamation Area in Mandaue, Tugonon and the rest of MCCI leaders said they will just go straight to the president.
Aquino had earlier said the Department of Trade and Industry will take care of the CICC repair, after local businessmen from Mandaue asked for Aquino’s help when he was here months ago.
These businessmen told Aquino the potential of the CICC to become an exhibit area for their local products.
The CICC, which cost around P800 million, was constructed under the leadership of then governor Gwen Garcia as the venue of the 2007 Association of Southeast Nations Summit. However, it has gradually deteriorated after the 2013 earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda destroyed some of its walls and roofs.
Davide has been quite firm in his stance not to spend “even a single centavo” for the facility’s repair, saying it is still subject to litigation. — Liv G Campo (FREEMAN)