Tuesday, December 05, 2006 President to unveil CICC marker
PRESIDENT Arroyo will unveil on Dec. 10 the marker that will state the significance of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC).
That, as Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday said she refuses to trivialize the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit by responding to criticisms that no meeting will be held at the P515-million facility funded by the Cebu Provincial Government.
The speculations were raised anew because of the media handbook distributed by the Asean secretariat that details the Asean leaders’ meetings at different hotels.
Ambassador Marciano Paynor has announced a number of times that the leaders’ meeting will be at Shangri-la’s Mactan Island Resort.
Petty issues
The venue of several other meetings, which could reach up to 98, is still being finalized, though.
“I will not concern myself with such petty issues and so should you,” she told reporters yesterday at the CICC.
“I will not trivialize the 12th Asean summit and the Cebuanos, I believe, are bigger than that,” she said, citing that from the beginning, the summit preparation was a collaborative effort of all local government units.
Paynor had announced that the opening ceremony of the 12th Asean summit will be held at the CICC on Dec. 10.
In fact, during the dry run last Dec. 1, Paynor practiced his role of meeting the heads of state who will alight from their cars and lead them to the CICC’s main entrance.
Shortly before the arrival of the top Asean leaders, which will be around 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 10, Garcia said the Capitol will have a ceremony where Arroyo will unveil a marker, on which will be written the significance of the building.
Yesterday, Garcia met three times with contractors for last-minute changes of some items at the CICC such as outdoor lights and the pump for the water feature at the center.
She met with them in the morning, at 5 p.m. and at midnight. “That’s how their lives will be for the next few days,” she said.
There will be a dry run today for the “ceremonial” lighting of the CICC and that of the streets covered by the ceremonial routes.
Groups from the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, to be led by their respective mayors, will have a torch parade from different points within the Mandaue Reclamation Area and will converge at the CICC for the lighting and fireworks display.
On the actual lighting ceremony on Dec. 6, the Ouano Ave. will be closed to traffic for two hours, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
