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DAVAO
CITY, Aug. 7 (PNA) - Davaoenos, especially those living in this mammoth
metropolis 540 air miles south of Manila, has never stopped dreaming
and hoping that someday a modern sports facility can be built for the
young generation.
That
long-awaited facility should be designed as an ideal venue for big
athletic competitions such as the magnitude of interscholastic of olden
era and now the Palarong Pambansa version.
Because
of the inadequacy in sports facilities vis-à-vis expanded sports events
in public athletic competitions of national scope, Davao City felt
unqualified to host them. It was only able to host two interscholastic
meets in l952 and l975.
It is an irony for Davao City which had been touted as the biggest city in the world, area-wise.
Inaugurated
as chartered city on March l, l937, it has a total land area of 244,005
hectares by the eastern seam of Davao Gulf and beneath the eastern face
of Mt. Apo 25 miles away in the west.
The
attempt of supplementing the seven-hectare PTA Ground as site for both
public and private athletic competitions had failed miserably until the
area was totally converted into a public park, “People’s Park”, last
December 2007 with a budget of P7l million.
Nine
months prior to the election of 200l, reelectionist Mayor Benjamin de
Guzman rushed up a P300,000 mini sportsdome, the “Artica Sportsdome”,
with a Chinese family lot donor at barangay Langub.
Rocked
by protests and questions on lack of environmental clearance, the
project was halfway constructed and overtaken by the victory of the
come-backing mayor who defeated the reelectionist mayor and a former
protege of the latter.
Mayor
Rodrigo R. Duterte refused to continue the project which had already
spent more than one half of the Landbank loaned money for the
l5,000-capacity sports dome patterned after Pasay’s model, the Cuneta
Astrodome.
Many
had insinuated and questioned the De Guzman sports dome project of
overpricing. Others also feared of a possible disaster in the building
being in the vicinity of the Matina Fault.
Although
blessed with another three successive reelections in his second coming
to city hall after one term in Congress representing the city’s first
district from June 30, l998 to June 30, 200l, Duterte again aborted a
P20-million sports arena at the UP-Mindanao grounds in Bago Oshiro
about two years ago.
Some of his councilors were squabbling over something in the acquisition of the needed sports ground lot.
In
1995, former Mayor Zafiro L. Respicio, was starting an effort to expand
the PTA Ground facility in his capacity as Immigration Commissioner
under President Fidel V. Ramos. But when he was in the vortex of the 11
Indians controversy late in that year, the dream of an improved sports
arena again puffed off into thin air.
Davaoenos
had also missed a good opportunity during the heydays of Davao Gov.
Alejandro Durano Almendras in the sixties up to the Marcos regime as a
Nacionalista senator. In his diminishing return, Almendras, however,
put up a mini sports gymnasium along Bolton St. named after him in
l985.
Other
Davao City congressmen or assemblymen during and after the departure of
the political kingmaker also failed to think of a real sports arena
facility.
Not
even the late Elias Baguio Lopez, the brightest among Bagobo sons, U.P.
scholar, lawyer, former mayor and congressman in the city’s third
district, despite closeness to Almendras and fellow U.P. fraternity
President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos.
Except
for Sheila Mae Perez, who honed her swimming and diving skills courtesy
of the murky water of the peripheries of Sasa wharf here, we could not
think of any outstanding Davaoeno at present in other fields of
athletics.
Even
Davaoenos who have four golf courses to shine in the sports of the rich
and business executives are nowhere to be found in the Woods’ green
courses.
If
Duterte is now losing fire, Davoenos in the metropolitan area can still
hope something can be done on the realization of a sports arena in the
magnitude of the Pelaez Stadiun in Cagayan de Oro as well as those in
Tubod, Lanao del Norte, Koronadal City in South Cotabato and Mati,
Davao Oriental through the initiatives of Speaker Prospero C. Nograles
and Press Secretary Jesus Dureza.
Both
gentlemen and politicians, being influential “President’s Men” in the
administration of President Gloria M. Arroyo, could still be last of
the Mohicans to make the giant dream for a modern sports facility of
Davao City come true. (PNA) |
