News Article Courtesy of Mr. Ram Mercado of Sunstar Pampanga(http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/mercado-sports-complex-needed-big-%E2%80%9Cpremier-city%E2%80%9D)
AFTER Mayor Nepomuceno assumed office in July 2007, he briefed Pampanga media about his work agenda. He also revealed how his predecessor, Mayor Lazatin, left him with a gargantuan debt, namely:
1. San Nicolas Public Market, virtually a white elephant, with disorganized and displaced beneficiaries, in the amount of P309 million plus in principal and interest.
2. Slaughterhouse, also debt-ridden like the market; a white elephant, too, and totally unusable due to wrong designed, in the amount of P44 million plus.
The major proponents and cohorts of Lazatin in the approval of this indebtedness are the same personalities who are now loudly protesting against the proposed sports complex project of Nepomuceno.
They were indecently quiet when Lazatin put the city in heavy debt with bank loans.
That’s the ugly side of politics. Look at how the critics and enemies of President Arroyo torment her on the issue of expensive dining in New York, including a hamburger dinner for the world’s 44th most powerful woman.
Demonizing Nepomuceno for his futuristic project are the same people who helped create Tarzan Lazatin’s financial misadventures during his term. Blueboy, nevertheless, turned around the once failed Lazatin’s economic ventures and put them to good use.
He has started the full utilization of the potentials of the San Nicolas market and the slaughterhouse. The public market will be leased to a large mall chain to create much needed revenue to repay the loan and to provide downstream jobs after its full operations.
To amortize the other loan for the abattoir, the place was leased to a private firm, bringing several millions of pesos from monthly rentals and various fees.
After transforming these former “white elephants” into major economic enterprises, the city mayor, among other programs he already initiated, wanted a sports complex for Angeles City.
As an Angeleno, I am often embarrassed when I shamefully admit to visitors that we do not have a public facility for athletic activities or open sports competitions in our community.
While principal cities in Central Luzon have their athletic playground, with gymnasium, a track and field oval, Angeles City has neglected to build the necessary infrastructure for public sports.
Mayor Blueboy must equally feel inferior when his colleagues from the League of Cities proudly boast of their own sports complex and modern gymnasium. Tarlac City, Olongapo City, Cabanatuan City, Balanga City, and Iba City have thus become the venues of choice for national sports activities.
Angeles cannot claim the status of premier city when it lacks this basic infrastructure. It has been missing the opportunity of hosting major events in national competitions like the Prisaa, or even the Claraa.
Organizers prefer the City of San Fernando as principal venue because of the Pampanga sports complex there.
Angeles can not host out-of-town PBA games for lack of a decent and proper facility for national sports. Special events are held or accommodated in private school gyms which turn away the general public due to security and space limitations.
A sports complex is an urgent imperative in this progressive community. It will not only empower both students and out-of-school youth through sports development and regular competition, but it will also serve as an open, secured, and free venue for interminable barangay events and activities.
The critics are correct in citing the need for expanding health, education, even burial benefits for the residents. We also need a sports complex to serve as jogging oval for senior citizens who crowd cemeteries for their exercise.
An oval at Balibago near SM City is not conducive to exercising due to heavy motor vehicle pollution in the area.
To avoid violating human rights sensibilities of motorists and residents of Balibago during the tumultuous “Tigtigan Terakan,” the sports complex will easily accommodate thousands of drunken revelers and shabu-high participants in this tourism event.
A sports complex is as equally needed as a modern hospital, schools for higher learning, or a modern shopping center in any growing metropolis like Angeles.
It is a sad reality that Angeles City, with its record income, tourist facilities, and human resources, including the finest schools in Luzon, could not even stage or host the major Prisaa or Claraa events except basketball and volleyball competitions.
In recent years, Angeles City was known for producing champion boxers. Now is the time to revive that glory sports by including a training center for boxers at the sports complex.
Mayor Blueboy, go ahead and do your best. You are now in a situation as Mrs. Imelda Marcos was when she first proposed the construction of the Heart Center, the Cultural Center, and the Lung Center. Her worst critics called these capricious, expensive, and impractical for a poor country like the Philippines.
If you find amortizing the project a tad onerous, you can lease the open field, when no major events are scheduled, to a private firm like they did an open space inside Subic Freeport to a Go Kart operator who charges P400 per ten laps of ride around the race oval.
Boxing events can also be staged in this complex, but leave the sabung games to Tarzan’s Mabuhay arena and the Nepo coliseum.
Another future use of the sports complex is for “Paintungul Alkalde Tony Mamac or “future” Mayor Vicky V. Cabigting, whoever comes first, who can hold their inaugural/oath taking rites in this people’s venue at the appointed time. When the project is finished, give them the priority use, even in staging assaults against your administration.
Sir, madam, the project you condemned today may be the scene of your glorious days tomorrow.
