Pork barrel for oval repair

I have not been to the Cebu City Sports Center for maybe a month, but I do know about the very sad state of the rubberized track oval of the facility that was built in 1994.

The rubberized track has a life span of ten years and it really is about time this facility, which is one if not the best utilized in the country, gets a new one.

There are thousands of people who get to exercise in the facility everyday. With the entry fee pegged at a minimum to allow more people to afford it, the earnings of the CCSC is not exactly enough to buy a new rubberized track.

Ricky Ballesteros, one of the very quiet, but hard working sportsmen of Cebu, told me yesterday that a company has quoted a cost of P18 million to replace the track oval including the two D sections (the area between the edge of the field and the track).

Ricky said that this quote was given last year when there was an effort made to ask Malacañang for funds to repair the oval. 

The request remains pending, but then after our failure to win a medal in Beijing, I hope the eyes of our political leaders would be opened to this dire need.

I remember during the term of President Fidel V. Ramos that there was a deliberate effort to move the Palarong Pambansa around the country so that there would be sports facilities in various areas.

The Cebu City Sports Center (not Complex as many people often call it) is one of those facilities built using the Palarong Pambansa budget, but unlike the facilities in many places around the country, the one in our city has been put to very good use.

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) has also identified Cebu as a regional hub of its sports development program under Philsports, but this can never be properly realized if the training facility here is not up to par.

The worst part actually is the fact that running at the CCSC track oval can cause injury if you are not careful.

My wish of course is for another sports facility to be built in Cebu for the serious athletes to train at. We can fix the CCSC for the public and the other health buffs and build another one that would be exclusive for athletes in training.

The reason for such is that the volume of users at the CCSC makes it impossible for our athletes to train properly. It’s like trying to practice driving a Formula-1 car at the Banilad road at 7 a.m. on a Monday.

One place to be tonight would be the Pacific Grand Ballroom of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel to watch Rey ‘Boom-boom” Bautista defend his World Boxing Organization Intercontinental super bantamweight title against Mexico’s Eden Marquez.

An even bigger fight to watch would be the defense of Donnie Nietes of the World Boxing Organization minimum weight title against Nicaragua’s Eddy Castro.

Big boxing cards have become a huge tourism draw for Cebu, which was something that was once only a dream for the top promoters here like Ninong Tony Aldeguer.

With venues like Waterfront Cebu City Hotel providing the audience with a place worthy of world-class fights, we would not also be embarrassed to invite boxing fans from other parts of the country and the world to come over and watch.

Many years ago, sports tourism was merely the combination of two words. Now, I am very happy to see it becoming a reality.

MILESTONES: A man who has stood with me not only during my wedding as the best man, but through thick and thin, is turning a year older today. We don’t get to hang out as often as we did in college or when we started a business venture selling hotdogs many years ago at the Sacred Heart School for Boys, I get to read his weekly column in The Freeman’s business section every Friday.

I am referring to Christopher Rey. M. Tio, who is celebrating his birthday today, which I hope he really would despite his very busy schedule of running his Crocs, Toys at Work and Iora outlets aside from consultancy work and his effort to promote entrepreneurship. 

I’d also like to greet a belated happy birthday my good friend Sadi Villagonzalo of Atlas Fertilizer Corporation, who turned a year older last Wednesday.