Saturday, April 05, 2008 Agbon blames mayor for meager budget
BELEAGUERED Cagayan de Oro athletic team manager, Delia Agbon said Friday the city government can be blamed for the sad condition of the homeground athletes.
If the homeground heroes in the just-concluded 2008 Palarong Pampook had been shrouded by various kind of difficulties such as taking flaks for wearing poor, if not unprescribed uniforms and reduced allowance, among others, Agbon said City Mayor Constantino "Tinnex" Jaraula can be held "liable" to it for his being "kuripot" (thrifty).
Agbon confirmed the revelation made earlier by her assistant team manager, Porferio "Jun" Padinit that indeed the city released just a meager budget for the holding of the four-day meet at the Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Center.
Originally, Agbon said they requested a P2.3 million budget from the city school board but what was initially approved was only P1-million and P640,000.
Now here's the catch: Agbon said the approved budget, though a far cry from the submitted ideal amount to make CDO team's life comfortable, had been unceremoniously slashed twice.
After submitting the list of delegation athletes, coaches and officials as well as the corresponding budget proposal, Agbon said they were quite upset when the supposed P1.64 million was cut down to P1.335 million.
"But the mayor had already warned us that he's kuripot when it comes to spending government's money for sports kay gusto niya sa local school level lang and not in big events like the Palaro," said Padinit in casual talk with this writer.
And it did not end there.
Again Agbon retorted that upon processing the vouchers for check of the said amount, it all came to their great dismay when the regional meet funding was lowered down again to P1.312 million which stands as the final budget.
"It's unfair because we're laboring like a workhorse just to fit the small budget for our delegation yet, we're even taking the blame for the hardship our poor athletes had been dealing with," said Agbon, adding that as partner of official host Misamis Oriental, "we're not even getting what's due us (sufficient budget of P73,000 from the province) for preparing the accommodation of other delegations."
The city's budget for the regional meet is so small that Agbon said the COAA management had no option than to adjust its two-day quartering to one day, shaving last year's P300 allowance to P200 including the P20,000 worth of medicines to P10,000 and another reduced amount of P8,000 intended for emergency and operational expenses.
"Ma'am Delia's effort to lead the COAA delegation is beyond praise-worthy `coz she was able to find a way despite of the tremendous budget pressure. But it's a blessing in disguise since the apparent lack of support had only challenged the more CDO athletes to buckle down to work in their quest for glory," opined Lawrence Pastrano of CDO's basketball coaching staff.
Pastrano, however, doubted it was the handiwork of Mayor Jaraula to make life miserable for the homeground athletes.
"Kay sa amo lang sa Asset sports program sa city mo-order man ang mayor pag-release sa budget gapugngan lang anang mga nakapalibot sa iya (there are some City Hall people around Mayor Jaraula who contributed much to the sporting mess)," Pastrano said without elaborating.
