CIPC may close due to money woes

Unresolved funding problems may force the Cebu Investments Promotions Center (CIPC) to close shop in a few months.

The P5.4 million assistance from the Cebu City government, which was not released to the CIPC this year, makes up 85 percent of the center’s funding requirements, said Joel Mari Yu, CIPC managing director.

The center had to reduce the number of its office staff from nine to four.

“We have been totally deprived of funding from the city,” Yu told the City Council yesterday.

Yu appeared as one of the speakers in a public hearing of a proposed ordinance by allies of Mayor Michael Rama in the council that seek to repeal City Ordinance 2332 which “protects the South Road Properties (SRP) from unauthorized dealings.”

4 new investors

Despite their financial problems, Yu said, CIPC managed to bring four new BPOs to Cebu with a promise of 5,000 new jobs in the last months of the year.

Yu said that CIPC was not created to cater solely to the marketing needs of the SRP or the Cebu City government.

He said they were created to market Cebu and bring investments here.

“I think we have done a marvelous job over the past 20 years. We have made Cebu the greatest foreign destination outside of the Calabarzon,” he said.

However, he said if Mayor Rama sees fit to withdraw financial support from the CIPC because their goals are incompatible then he would not insist.