Wednesday, March 21, 2007 39 events scheduled for CICC
THIRTY-NINE events are being lined up for booking at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), with some reservations for activities scheduled for as far as April next year.
Rep. Clavel Martinez earlier said they will make the CICC an election issue against Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, calling it the “Cebu International Corruption Center.”
Martinez also said the CICC served a purpose only during the Asean, but not now that the event is over.
“Kon dunay mga tawo sa probinsya nga gipanggutom nga makakita sa CICC moingon ba sila nga hoy, nabusog na ko, (The CICC will not be able to feed the hungry people in the province),” said Martinez in a radio interview.
Accounting
She alleged there was a “big anomaly” in the construction of the CICC.
Garcia had announced that in a few weeks, the Capitol will be ready to present an accounting of Capitol’s expenses for the CICC, which was built for P515 million. The structure was built in time for the 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and East Asia summits last January.
Martinez stepped inside the CICC before a gala dinner Malacañang hosted for the heads of state. In an interview inside the building, Martinez had asked, “What are you going to do with this building after the Asean?”
After the summit last Jan. 12 to 14, the CICC opened its doors again to the public with the holding of the Philippine Councilors’ League national convention last March 8 to 10.
Until next year
A list of interested parties who asked for reservations shows that the proposed events run up to April next year.
After the league convention, other activities for March include a tourism jobs fair on March 28 and 29 and a launching of services by the Central Bank of the Philippines on March 26.
Cebu Mitsumi Corp. would have wanted to hold its awarding of outstanding employees this month at the CICC, but found that it could not accommodate the number of employees that they have.
Annual assemblies of cooperatives are also scheduled, such as the Mavenco and the Cebu CFI, while the Coca-Cola annual sales convention will be on April 14.
Other events scheduled at the CICC include the Cebu Asean Tourism Congress, the National Tourism Congress, the congress of the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines, two concerts, a motor show, the Grand Chamber Awards of the CCCI and the Kalakbay Awards of the DOT.
The CICC will also be the venue of this December’s Asian International Real Estate conference that will gather 10,000 people. The event was previously held in Barcelona.
Next year’s scheduled events are the Cebu X on Feb. 26 and the Philippine Institute of Chemical Engineering Annual Convention on Feb. 6 to 8, 2008. (JPM)
