Mayor admits delay in convention center rehab

BAGUIO City Mayor Mauricio Domogan admitted over the week of the reported delays in the ongoing rehabilitation and repair of the city-owned Baguio convention Center (BCC) with its completion moved from the first week of February to the first week of April.

However, the local chief executive claimed that despite the delays in the ongoing construction activities in the city’s premier convention facility, the contractor is doing its best to complete the remaining works to make sure that the facility can already be used by April where there are numerous that have been lined up in the city by private and government institutions eagerly awaiting the use the newly rehabilitated facility.

“We hope that we will have a newly rehabilitated convention facility early this year so that government and private organizations wanting to use the facility for their gatherings will be able to already book their schedules the soonest,” Domogan said.

Rehabilitation of the city-owned BCC started in March 2018 after the Department of Public Works and Highways earmarked some P180 million for the implementation of the project through the representations of local officials with top management of the agency.

The rehabilitation and repair project would have cost P180 million but the contractor bidded the implementation of the rehabilitation and repair of the city-owned facility at only P169 million.

The Baguio Convention Center was constructed in 1978 by the Ministry of Human Settlements previously headed by former First Lady and now Ilocos Norte 2nd district Rep. Imelda Romualdez-Marcos that served as the venue for the world chess championship match between world chess champion Anatoly Karpov and challenger Victor Korchnoi.

The state-owned Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) was the registered owner of the premier convention facility before the local government purchased the same using its share from the annual lease rentals of the John Hay Special Economic Zone (JHSEZ) until the deed of sale was perfected sometime in 2912.

Domogan remains optimistic the city-owned convention facility will be available for use by April so that those who had been patiently awaiting the availability of the convention center for their gatherings could already make their desired reservations.

Aside from slightly increasing the capacity of the convention center, the ongoing rehabilitation of the facility was aimed at improving its state to be able to attract more groups to hold their local, regional, national and international gatherings in the city.

The local governments owns the whole Baguio Convention Center structure and the one hectare parking space that is situated around the facility to accommodate the huge volume of motor vehicles that will be parked by participants who want to join in the gatherings that will be scheduled in the facility in the coming months.

DPWH-CAR is the implementing agency for the rehabilitation and repair but the plans and specifications for the project was done in consultation with the end user that is the local government. (PR)

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