The Mandaue City Government will now proceed with its plan to construct a new government center at the site of the now-abandoned Cebu International Convention Center.
This was the agreement made during a meeting of Gov. Gwen Garcia with Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and other city officials on Thursday.
The meeting was witnessed by Rhoda Movalye of the Commission on Audit 7.
While the Capitol and Mandue LGU are awaiting the COA`s reappraisal of the property and evaluation of the sale, Mandaue`s government center project will proceed, as agreed by the parties.
In 2017, the Provincial Government and Mandaue LGU entered into an agreement for the P300-million sale of the CICC, including the 3.2-hectare lot where it stood, located in the North Reclamation Area. The sale was completed in 2018.
In case the reappraised value by COA is higher than the original sale price, Mandaue City is willing to pay the balance to the Provincial Government.
The renegotiation of the CICC sale came after the COA pointed out in its 2019 report that the sale lacked public bidding, thus the reasonableness of the negotiated selling price and the conformity of the sale with existing regulations were not ascertained.
The dilapidated convention center was built to host the 2007 ASEAN Summit and related summits. The building was destroyed following the magnitude 7.2 Bohol earthquake in October 2013 and Super Typhoon Yolanda a month later. | Carlo Lorenciana