Mindanaotoday.com | How Oro convention center got renamed
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
The renaming of Cagayan de Oro Convention Center to Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. International Convention Center came as a surprise to many in this city.
Mayor Rolando A. Uy mentioned the new name of the P1.335-billion imposing structure on Taguanao hill, Indahag village just Thursday (June 15) last week, right before his first annual report during the 73rd City Charter Day commemoration–the first-ever at the convention center’s 7,700-seater amphitheater.
On Monday, June 19, the Office of Senator Aquilino LL. Pimentel III sent this paper a legislative timeline that ended on June 18, 2022 when Republic Act No. 11845, lapsed into law and took effect 15 days after its publication.
The legislative process took over a year, from the time Cagayan de Oro Second District Representative Rufus B. Rodriguez introduced House Bill No. 8845 that was passed on third-reading during the 19th Congress in the House of Representatives on March 22, 2021.
H.B. No. 8845 was entitled: “An act renaming the Cagayan de Oro Convention Center located at Barangay Indahag, Cagayan de Oro City as Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. International Convention Center.”
Sponsored by Senator Francis N. Tolentino and co-sponsored by 10 senators, H.B. No. 8845 was passed by the Senate of the Philippines on January 31, 2022. All 21 senators present voted in favor for the bill, with no abstentions.
But H.B. No. 8845 was not signed by then President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
Section 27 (1), Article IV of the Philippine Constitution states that a bill, voted upon by two-thirds of members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, but not acted upon by the President, becomes a law within 30 days after its submission.
“The President shall communicate his veto of any bill to the House where it originated within thirty days after the date of receipt thereof; otherwise, it shall become a law as if he had signed it,” the Constitutional provision states.
Aside from Tolentino, the co-sponsors of H.B. No. 8845 were Senators Sonny Angara, Ma. Lourdes S. Binay, Ronald dela Rosa, Franklin M. Drilon, Win Gatchalian, Manuel Lapid, Ralph E. Recto, Ramon Revilla, Joel Villanueva, and Cynthia A. Villar.
Conceptualized by the late Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel when he briefly served as Senate President, the project got an initial funding of P125 million in 2000. Groundworks started June 30, 2001, just a day before he stepped down as Senate President and assumed as Senate Minority Floor Leader.
Some P240.65-million was supposed to have been allotted for the resumption of the project but was reportedly withheld by Malacañang.
Construction of the main structure started in 2018 after the Department of Public Works and Highways got a P235-million allocation in the 2017 General Appropriations Act. The project was with the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA).
On September 8, 2021, the DPWH reported the completion of the project.
The convention center’s main building is 10,500 square meters constructed in a 4.9-hectare land formerly owned by the family of the late Mayor Pablo P. Magtajas.
Pimentel, a lawyer, served as mayor of Cagayan de Oro 1980 to 1984, assemblyman, and later as senator for nine years and served as majority floor leader, and twice as minority floor leader. He passed away at the age of 85 on October 20, 2019 due to lingering illness.
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