Friday, July 25, 2008
President considers holding Cabinet meeting in new session hall
By Linette C. Ramos
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
SIGNATURE furniture pieces and the P120-million newly-renovated Cebu City Hall Legislative Building, including the City Council session hall that she inaugurated yesterday, impressed President Arroyo.
In less than 20 minutes, Arroyo unveiled the marker of the Plaza Sugbu and the session hall named after her mother, Doña Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal, but skip-ped the short message that she was scheduled to deliver during the ceremony.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña, Vice Mayor Michael Rama, Rep. Raul del Mar (Cebu City, north district), city councilors, officials and members of the business sector welcomed Arroyo at the legislative building at 10 a.m. yesterday.
The President was so impressed with the new session hall that she considered it a possible venue for a Cabinet meeting in the future.
At the fourth floor of the building, where the session hall, social hall and the caucus room are located, Arroyo raved about the furniture made by famed furniture designer Kenneth Cobonpue.
“Beautiful, beautiful. It’s very nice... Wow, we can really hold a Cabinet meeting here,” City Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem quoted the President as saying when she entered the session hall.
The council named the session hall the Doña Eva Macaraeg-Macapagal Hall as a way of thanking the President for her contributions to Cebu City. Doña Eva had spent a number of years in the city, where she studied.
For about five minutes, the President admired the session hall and joined the mayor, vice mayor, city councilors and department heads for a photo session.
Aside from the designer furniture, the session hall is also equipped with a P4-million digital congress sound and video system, which has teleconferencing and videoconferencing features.
“She really liked what she saw, especially the furniture, and brought up the idea of having a Cabinet meeting, so I said we’ll show her the caucus room, that’s where she can really have her Cabinet meeting. Then she was very impressed,” Jakosalem told Sun.Star Cebu.
The caucus room features export-quality furniture designed and manufactured by Cebuanos, as well as paintings and other art pieces.
Renovation work at the legislative building began in early 2006 and was completed in December last year.
The original contract price for the renovation was only P65 million but the amount ballooned to some P120 million when several variations were introduced.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 25, 2008 issue)
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