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Saturday, September 17, 2005
Biz group demands P500T for aborted confab
By Jenny Molbog-Mendoza
DAVAO CITY -- An official of the Dipolog Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Inc. said they want a reimbursement of the P500,000 they spent to prepare for the 14th Mindanao Business Conference (Minbizcon).
Edwin Capili, DCCI chairman, said they won in 2002 the bid to host this year's conference and was surprised when informed that the event would be held in Davao City, not Dipolog City.
This is why they filed a petition for temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the staging of the 14th Minbizcon in Davao City.
"Since 2002, we were already preparing. If you are in our place and you have already spent half a million pesos, then what would you do? When we bid in 2002, we have already presented our facilities and our capacity to host the event. Then all of a sudden they will tell us that we are no longer hosting the event," Capili said.
"When they (referring to the MBNC) decided not to hold the event in our place, they offered it to Iligan but Iligan didn't accept it. Alam n'yo (You know what), for me ha, nakakahiya na tayo lang dito sa Mindanao ang nag-aaway-away (it's embarrassing that we here in Mindanao are quarreling)," he added.
Capable host
Dipolog is capable of hosting the 14th Minbizcon, he said.
The fact that Dipolog won the hosting bid last 2002 showed that the city as well as its business organization is competent to handle the three-day affair, he added.
"They keep on saying that we have an airport but yet it has a very few number of flights. Well, we have direct flights from Manila to Davao and vice versa everyday. Marbel, Surigao, and even Iligan have already hosted the Minbizcon and they don't have their own airports but they were able to host the event successfully," he said.
Dipolog Chamber president Edgar Bagarinao, who was in Davao City Friday for an important meeting, said they were successfully able to host a huge gathering last year. This just goes to show that they are capable of hosting the Minbizcon.
"There was this event last year which is called Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals national convention wherein almost 2,000 participated. And we have not received any complaints in terms of security, the way we hosted it, and the venue," Bagarinao said.
He added that with the 500 expected delegates of Minbizcon, "even if umabot pa 'yan ng (participants reach) 800, we can still accommodate all of them."
No dialogue
The officials regretted the lack of effort to provide a venue where they and the Mindanao Business Council (MBC) may discuss the problem.
"There was no venue for us to thresh out the nitty-gritty of hosting. They never talked to us. For us, that is most unfair," Capili said.
In an earlier interview with MBC chair Antonio Santos, however, he said an assessment team sent out to inspect the facilities in Dipolog City came out with a not so positive result.
He also denied that the transfer of the venue was arbitrary as they have been corresponding with the Dipolog Chamber regarding the developments in the assessment of the city's facilities.
Santos gave Sun.Star copies of a letter they sent to the Dipolog Chamber and the accompanying assessment report. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
(September 17, 2005 issue)
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