Rowing equipment vandalized, stolen

Amateur Rowing Association of the Philippines (ARAP) president Benjie Ramos recently deplored the repeated burglary and vandalizing incidents within the national rowing team’s training venue and quarters inside the La Mesa Dam in Quezon City.

Ramos said that since the association started using the government-owned reservoir in 1995, there have been numerous incidents where expensive rowing equipment like sculls, oars and customized seats were either stolen or vandalized.

Just recently, metal horses being used to hold some of the boats outside the warehouse were stolen. But these horses are not as expensive as the sculls being bought from Europe for $5,000 to $25,000 each, the oars at P12,000 per piece and seats at P5,000 each.

"Through the years, we’ve lost a lot of equipment. And these are of Olympic quality. We’ve already lost six oars and four rowing seats that can be easily detached. Some of the sculls, the bigger ones (eights) costing $25,000 each, were vandalized. Binubutas ‘yung iba," said Ramos.

The rowing president said they’ve always reported the incidents, wherein at least a hundred thousand pesos worth of equipment have either been lost or damaged, to the barangay leaders and to the private security personnel manning the area.

"But just recently, I was informed that the metal horses we built were also stolen. Before, we used wooden horses pero madali din masira sa wear and tear. So we had metal horses built. Tapos ninakaw din," said Ramos.

Before the ARAP was allowed to use a certain area inside the La Mesa Dam as training venue, its athletes used to train at the Pasig river.

"But it’s a common practice now that reservoirs are being used as training venues of rowing teams from Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. What we don’t understand is why some people would steal or vandalize our equipment.

"They can’t even sell them because we will know that it’s ours once we see them. It’s really terrible because the national athletes are using the equipment for training. And they’re the ones suffering," said Ramos.

"Nabubuksan nila ang bodega sa gabi and some tools are being stolen, too," he added.