Development
The site where the convention centre now stands was originally intended for a sports complex dubbed as the "Cebu Mega Dome". A contest was held for its design and the winning entry was the "spinning disc" by Architect Alexus Medalla. The project however was stalled after some members of the provincial board opposed it.
In late 2005, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo decided that the province would host the 12th ASEAN Summit and 2nd East Asia Summit in December 2006, which was later on moved to January 12–15, 2007 due to Typhoon Utor. The Philippines was supposed to host the twin summits on December 2007 yet but Myanmar, the original host for 2006, backed out. Since the province lacked a stand alone convention centre with complete facilities for a large and prestigious international gathering like the ASEAN Summit, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn García revived the "mega dome" project but with the design revised as a convention centre instead of a sports arena. The external structure would still be that of a "spinning disc."
A few weeks after though, a new design came up and was eventually considered since it was cheaper and easier to build (granting that it was smaller in size too) considering the time constraint that the Cebu Provincial Government was running to. Construction for the substructure began on April 2006 and work on the superstructure itself which was largely made up of structural steel, glass and aluminum cladding began three months after. The centre was finished four months later sometime late November and was officially inaugurated on January 6, 2007.
Read more about this topic: Cebu International Convention Center
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