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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Cebu City sets ‘cosmetic’ work for Asean meet
CEBU CITY -- More road repairs, streetlights and repainting of public structures will be done in preparation for the Asean summit next year, amid suspicions of underground efforts to transfer the venue to Manila.
As he announced Monday his plan to create a “cosmetic team,” Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said he will not meddle in the megadome or Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) issue since it will be built in Mandaue City anyway.
“We can’t help them on that because it will be there in Mandaue. Anyway, I thought the problem is the lot but it turns out it isn’t. I offered the SRP but I was misunderstood so I don’t want to have anything to do with it,” he told a news conference.
Cebu City also has no infrastructure that can be used for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in December, Osmeña said.
As for the cosmetic team, the mayor said it will take charge of asphalting roads, street lighting and beautification projects in the city.
The team, though, will not cover eyesores. The mayor said he does not believe in hiding poverty in Cebu.
The City Government will also put up an entertainment center for foreign journalists who will cover the event.
The mayor told reporters of his plans amid suspicions that some National Government officials are working to transfer the venue of the summit to Manila instead of Cebu.
The national organizing committee reportedly lamented the lack of hotel rooms and facilities in Cebu that will ensure the successful holding of the summit.
“I’m willing to make a bet that they (committee) are working hard to transfer it to Manila because they are all anti-Cebu. They’re just here to point out the problems, that there is no venue but they won’t help solve the problem,” Osmeña said.
If the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel or the proposed megadome cannot host the Asean activities, the venue will reportedly be transferred to Manila.
Osmeña still believes Cebu should be the venue for the Asean summit, adding that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself wants the event held here.
Besides, he added, Cebu left a very good impression on the Asean foreign ministers, who enjoyed their retreat here last year.
“We got very good feedback from them and they said they like it here in Cebu. The committee will try to transfer it to Manila but we already have our foot in the door... The foreign ministers even chose Cebu but if we’re sleeping, we would lose it,” he said.
For his part, Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. said he still finds the need to build an international convention center for the summit, despite the apprehension of the hoteliers’ group.
“Look what Malaysia did. They already have a convention center but they built another convention center for the summit just to show to the world that they can handle big events. We will be showing that we aren’t capable if we hold it in hotels and Cebu would not look good,” Sanchez said.
He also said that the convention center will be a good landmark for Cebu and a very fitting venue for a historic event.
“It’s not only Cebu’s name that is at stake here but the name of the whole country,” the vice governor said.
Sanchez is also for the fast tracking of the bidding process to meet the deadline.
Sanchez, a civil engineer, said the bidding should be done immediately since the “curing period” of concrete could not be cut short.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Sanchez and officials of the Commission on Audit (COA) had a meeting late afternoon Monday to discuss the bidding procedure for the CICC or the megadome.
In the meeting, it was agreed that a COA official will sit as observer in every meeting for the CICC.
Garcia said COA Regional Legal Officer Roy Ursal agreed to be with the task force that she will create for the project to observe the proceedings, and to dispel suspicions that they are going to railroad the project for their own benefit.
“He will be aware of the transactions, and he will also have legal inputs,” said Garcia.
They are also studying the creation of a separate bids and awards committee (BAC), whose function is to take care solely of the undertaking.
BAC members of the Cebu Provincial Government have their hands full of infrastructure projects that Garcia wanted implemented, such as the asphalting of roads, the upgrading of provincial hospitals and the construction of two-classroom buildings, among others.
Ursal will not just sit in the task force meetings, he will also be attending BAC meetings for the CICC to observe the process.
“We were never talking of shortcuts here, but expediting,” said the governor.
The Office of the Governor is currently readying the executive order for the task force, which will have committees for technical, legal and financial aspects.
The Capitol will work within the P250-million budget for the structure, expected to be completed by November in time for the Asean summit this December.
Back at City Hall, Osmeña said that since the foreign media will play an important role in projecting Cebu in other countries, they too will be pampered.
The City will lease the Sunflower City for three nights so the foreign reporters can unwind there, with overflowing food, drinks and entertainment, which could cost the City Government a few millions, he said.
He added that Japanese and Korean reporters will be given special attention, their countries being the target market of Cebu’s tourism industry. (LCR/MBG/JPM of Sun.Star Cebu)
(January 10, 2006 issue)
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