Big loss if center closes

SABINO Dapat, who resigned as trustee in the Cebu Investment Promotions Center, said the center should be supported.

“CIPC is already well known to investors. It would be a big loss to close such an organization that has already established itself,” said Dapat, a finance executive and former president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He said he and four other trustees signed a joint resignation letter as a “courtesy resignation” to give the Cebu city mayor a free hand in choosing board members.

Regional Director Asteria Caberte of the Department of Trade and Industry said she remains on the board of trustees as part of her work to promote investments. “Yes there is no funding. It’s sad that it happened to CIPC which is doing so many things to promote Cebu to many investors,” she said.

Caberte said CIPC will continue to operate even if it’s just her and CIPC managing director Joel Mari Yu with their secretariat staff.

Lack of support

Yu, meanwhile, said he was saddened by the lack of financial support from the City Hall this year and that it would be difficult to keep the center going.

“This is the first time it’s happened after 20 years,” he said.

“We have scaled down from ten to 12 staffers to only about seven now. We received donations from the private sector but it is not enough to support our operations,” he said.

CIPC requires P6.5 million to P7 million a year for operation costs. Cebu City’s subsidy covers about 85 percent. “We are not a fly-by-night NGO. In fact, the city does not release the funding in full. They do it in tranches of about P1 million and they don’t release the next tranch if we can’t submit a report with liquidation,” he said.

Yu said the CIPC is willing to submit any report the Cebu City Council needs to show how funds were used.

Geronimo Sta. Ana said he resigned as CIPC chairman with four other trustees on June 30 as a “courtesy resignation” to the reelected mayor.

“We want to give the mayor a free hand to choose whoever is taking over. When we resigned, we did not know whether funding would be released or not,” Sta. Ana said.

Yu said a new board of trustees would be elected and that the CIPC is complying with all requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for this process.

The CIPC is the marketing arm of the reclamation project of Cebu City, the South Road Properties. /REPORTER AILEEN GARCIA-YAP