Thursday, January 31, 2008 Maxey: The People's Park By Ram Maxey Bar None
A FEW years back I wrote a couple of times on the need to convert the old PTA grounds into a park. There was a time when the 7.2 hectare field, which the city had converted into a sports area, boasted of an oval for track and field events, a swimming pool, open courts for basketball, volleyball, softball, baseball, tennis and sepak takraw.
There also was a wooden grandstand as well as a few bleachers for spectators. I remember, too, that in its heyday circa 1987 the PTA played host to a national track and field competition organized by the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa) headed by its president and former governor of Surigao del Norte, Jose Sering.
Joe and elder brother Tony (my classmate in Surigao High) were also my comrades in the 114th Infantry Regiment, 110th Division (USFIP-Surigao/Agusan Sector) in World War II. I met both brothers for the last time during the Patafa championships when Patafa head Joe paid a courtesy call on OIC Mayor Zafiro Respicio at City Hall. Joe died a few years later while I have lost track of Tony who, as a 2nd lieutenant, was our procurement officer.
That national athletics championship was notable for the participation of the great Lydia de Vega, Asia's fastest woman at the time, and other outstanding athletes of the country. The PTA grounds were also where a national seniors football tournament was held that was won by the Davao City team. Those were the glory days of the PTA and of Davao sports.
In time, the rickety grandstand, which had become home to several families whose houses had been razed by a fire, itself succumbed to fire. At night the dimly lighted PTA had become a sort of lovers' lane and where youths who had lost their bearings smoked pot or sniffed the night away with rugby.
The place had really fallen on bad times. Uncaring people with motor vehicles or motorcycles had also churned up the dirt track with their comings and goings while the near-empty swimming pool whose water had turned brownish had become home to frolicking frogs.
I wrote then that it was time to convert the PTA grounds into a park where people could go to relax while their kids have the time of their lives on the seesaws, slides, and the like. There would also be a police outpost for security reasons, and whose presence 24 hours a day would be a deterrent to monkey business of any sort.
Lo and behold! What I had envisioned has come about. The new People's Park is even more than what I had in mind. Dabawenyos can be mighty proud of it. If it cost P70 million, it's worth every centavo of it. To its detractors, I say: Eat your hearts out. The tens of thousands of people and their children--especially the kids--who have been enjoying themselves at the People's Park are a testament to its importance to their lives.
But I beg to differ with fellow columnist Jun Ledesma who says people who use the park ought to pay for the privilege, the way it is done in other countries where he has been. People in those countries can afford it, Jun, but P20 per adult and P10 per child is just too high a price for our poorest of the poor to pay. Let us not deprive them of the privilege to use the park.
Perhaps voluntary contributions will do, covered with receipts of course. I am sure many will gladly pay according to their capacity to do so. They will understand the need to maintain the park at its best. After all, it's THEIR park too, isn't it?
