12th ASEAN Summit

WHILE P637.4 million was allotted for the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), building the structure only cost taxpayers P581,273,727.17, according to Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.

But even then, the building should be worth more than P1 billion, according to the governor during a cost analysis presentation of the CICC yesterday at the Capitol.

For an hour and 40 minutes, the governor discussed expenditures for the CICC, emphasizing how little the Cebu provincial government spent on it based on industry standards and compared to similar structures built in Ilocos and Negros.

The governor explained that the funds for the CICC came from several allocations: P248.754 million from the defunct Megadome project, P200 million and P65 million from separate supplemental budgets, and P123.73 million by virtue of a provincial board ordinance.

While the original allocation for the Megadome was P250 million, P1.246 was already spent to hold a nationwide design contest for the project, which was eventually scrapped in favor of the CICC.

The governor categorized the CICC’s expenditures into seven items. The structure itself cost P475.259 million in building materials.

Other items were land improvements – P1.91 million; furniture and fixtures – P17.818 million; information technology equipment – P956,000; medical, dental and laboratory equipment – P150,196.33; communications equipment – P530,723; and other properties, plants and equipment – P84.64 million.

The project totaled P581,273 million, averaging P22,625.18 per square meter for the 25,691.45-square-meter floor area of the building, the governor said.

A total of P56.21 million remains of the allocation for the CICC, which the governor said would be spent on future modifications of the structure to accommodate the needs of exhibitors.

To show that the provincial government got a good deal in the project, Garcia compared it to the P59.01-million Ilocos Norte Hotel and Convention Center, currently being built, and the P137-million Negros Oriental Hotel and Convention Center which is 95-percent complete (see table).

She also compared the CICC’s costs with those in the Construction Cost Handbook Philippines 2006 by Davis Langdon and Seah, an international construction consultancy firm.

Based on the firm’s industry standards estimates, constructing the 25,691.45-square-meter building would have cost between P27,000 to P31,550 per square meter, for a total of between P703.9 million to P810.5 million. Its 30,350-square-meter landscape would cost P9,900 to P11,850 per square meter for a total of P300.4 million to P359.6 million.

Based on these estimates, the CICC should be worth P1.004 billion to P1.170 billion, the governor said.

“Is the CICC overpriced? We can even be held guilty of underpricing,” she said.

Groping in the dark

At certain points in her presentation, Garcia would refer to mediaman Leo Lastimosa and contractor Chris Saavedra, whom she said did not know what they were talking about when they criticized the CICC.

She said Lastimosa and Saavedra were fed information by “unscrupulous Capitol employees” who smuggled documents out of the Capitol and gave these to her detractors, who ended up not knowing what they were reading.

“I challenge our employees nga padayon mo pangawat because I have nothing to hide,” she said.

The governor said her presentation was not to earn points for herself in the coming election.

“We are doing this as requested and in consonance with our principle of transparency,” she said.

“We are now running at P581 million (CICC construction cost) and I would dare say we will be spending more but I will do so because I know that I have nothing to hide. Everything is as transparent as can be,” Garcia said.

Before the CICC cost analysis, Capitol department heads presented a “report card” of infrastructure projects undertaken during Garcia’s administration.

These included the asphalting and improvement of 447.032 kilometers of road at a cost of P1.34 billion, the construction of 69 bridges worth P103 million; the roll-on, roll-off port in Daanbantayan worth P14.99 million; 100-bed Carcar provincial hospital at P64.49 million, 69 two-classroom school buildings totaling P39.72 million and waterworks systems worth P21.07 million.