Friday, December 08, 2006 3 host mayors attend rites By Aledel Gonzalez-Cuizon Sun.Star Staff Reporter
AFTER barely eight months of work, the P515-million Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) was formally launched last night amid festive dances and fireworks.
Shortly before 7 p.m., fireworks lit up the Mandaue City skyline, to the cheers of government officials led by Ambassador Marciano Paynor, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Mayors Tomas Osmeña, Thadeo Ouano and Arturo Radaza.
“As we light up the CICC, we do so in unity. We prove once again Cebu’s greatest strength and it is this: that when we are faced with a challenge, when a common dream possesses us, when we see the path to our shared destiny, Cebuanos can come together to give the best of what we have, and then some,” Garcia said in her speech.
Ambassador Paynor, head of the National Organizing Committee for the 12th Asean Summit, thanked everyone.
“You have achieved an unprecedented milestone in the history of Cebu,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the organizing committee held its first briefing at the CICC, across the hall from the international broadcasting center, while workers put finishing touches on an exhibit hall downstairs and polished the driveway.
“There is definitely something that wasn’t there before. Let us be proud of the CICC. It stands for what Cebu is and what Cebuanos are made of,” Ouano said in his speech.
At 5 p.m., students and residents lined up along one lane of Ouano Ave. and C.D. Seno St., which both lead to the CICC. They brought small replicas of the flags of Asean member-nations.
An hour later, contingents from the cities of Mandaue, Cebu and Lapu-Lapu were led by their mayors as they marched to the CICC grounds.
Each city was escorted by a contingent of dancers performing the cities’ respective festival dances.
The parade of colors then started, with the entry of the Asean flag and the flags of the member-nations.
Ouano, Garcia and Paynor delivered their speeches before the ceremonial lighting. After a 10-second countdown, came the confetti and fireworks, plus some impromptu dancing from officials who’ve spent most of the year preparing for the summit.
Groundbreaking for the CICC was held last April, two months after President Arroyo announced that the summit will be held in Cebu.
“It was to be a monumental task, to be sure, a challenge the likes of which Cebu had never faced. But it was also the measure of her enduring faith, and her unshakeable confidence, in what Cebu can do,” said the governor.
Ouano, for his part, said that hosting the summit is a privilege and at the same time a chance for Mandaue City to show that it is “globally competitive and ready for the world.”
“The CICC, therefore, is a symbol of the low-key but forceful and persevering Cebuanos. The Cebuanos’ strong determination to excel and to deliver what is expected of them are Cebuano trademarks that are deeply embedded in this edifice,” he said. (AAG)
