Produce CICC receipts, board tells managing firm

The management board of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) will examine the receipts of payments of all activities held there to verify reports that it posted a higher income of P31.19 million last year.

Questions were raised during yesterday’s CICC management board meeting after the Philippine Exhibits and Themeparks Corp. (Petco) said its income went up compared to 2011’s earnings at P24.6 million.

Acting Cebu Gov. Agnes Magpale, who sat on the CICC board meeting for the first time since occupying the post late last year, said while the CICC raised its income, the Capitol continues to pour more funds into its operations.

She said P41 million was sourced from the Capitol’s General Fund to finance the CICC since 2007.

Every month, the Capitol pays nearly P1 million on electric bills while about P250,000 is paid to water supply.

Also yesterday, the Provincial Board (PB) passed a resolution voicing its support for Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes’s proposal for the city to buy the CICC and convert it into Mandaue City Hall.

In a resolution sponsored by PB member Arleigh Sitoy, the board cited the high maintenance costs of the CICC as reason for its support.

Venue

During the CICC board meeting, Petco operations manager Marissa Naliana said they will provide all receipts and documents on CICC’s finances.

“If we receive payments from the Capitol, we don’t keep it and we remit it right away,” she said.

Nallana briefed the board on the CICC’s operations specifically the events held there.

Compared to 2011, the CICC hosted 208 events or a 14.9 percent increase.

More than half of these events are categorized as special events (64 percent).

Exhibitions and conventions comprise eight percent each while seminars or meetings are pegged at 20 percent of the total activities.

After the meeting, Magpale told reporters her surprise on learning that the Capitol didn’t pay rentals to the center despite using it as venue for programs since 2007.

But Naliana said the Capitol’s payments of power, water and other bills of the CICC would have offset the cost of rental.

“Still, they’re supposed to pay us since the procedure is we collect rents from private and public sectors,” she said.

“When we were trying to collect payments, (suspended Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s)  office said okay, just offset the rentals since we are paying most of the expenses,” Nallana told the board.

Shortchanged

Nallana said the recent bad publicity on the CICC’s financial status resulted in the cancellation of some schedueld events.

The CICC was built in 2007 for the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).

A copy of the PB resolution will be furnished to the Mandaue City government.

Earlier, Sitoy suggested that the CICC should be sold since so the Capitol can pay settle its “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude) to the Mandauehanons.

In his privilege speech last week, Sitoy said turning over or selling the CICC to the Mandaue City government would rectify the one-sided arrangement the province had with the city.

Despite sitting as a member in the CICC management board, Sitoy said the Mandaue City government was shortchanged because they weren’t given an accounting of the expenses incurred by the center and its operations.

The board is chaired by the governor and co-chaired by the mayor of Mandaue City. /Dale G. Israel, Jucell Marie P. Cuyos and Carmel Loise Matus