SO, we are the hosting the 2019 Southeast Asian Games after all. The announcement was made by Sec. Alan Peter Cayetano, who looked like a referee when he sat between PSC chairman Butch Ramirez and POC president Peping Cojuangco in the press con.
I guess, the people of Marawi aren’t that important anymore? Or, would the government be looking to China, again, to look for funds.
That’s the problem when you make up an excuse; you’ll look silly when you change your mind. That the SEAG hosting was put on hold in favor of the rehab of Marawi was just an excuse to make it seem more acceptable. The real reason was the insistince of the POC to control the funds of the hosting.
So Peping has shown how astute an operator he is, managing to convince Digong to change his mind. How did he do it? How does one go about making Digong change his mind? Contact friends who are friends with Digong.
Still, this latest flip-flop hasn’t flipped my stand on the 2019 SEA Games the first time I heard of it in 2015. Leave Cebu out of the hosting.
When Peping heroically volunteered the country to host the 2019 edition when Brunei backed out, only he knew about the plan. That came about 11 years after his plan to build a world-class center for athletes never got out of the drawing board, and here he was, volunteering to spend government money on a hosting gig that in 2005, still had unliquidated expenses.
Does that make sense to you?
It didn’t to me then, it still doesn’t now.
How much are we going to spend again for the SEAG? A billion? Two billion?
What’s a billion or more if you have billions that you have to look for to fund the free college tuition program?
Para sa bayan, right?
Soloha ninyo!
Remember what happened after the 2005 SEA Games that we hosted? Not only did we have to scramble for funds for the five non-crowd drawing events that we had, the organizers got in trouble because the P10 million financial assistance should have been used for venue construction not operations.
Well, the rationale behind the venue choices in Cebu in 2005—USC, Waterfront, Danao—was that these were already in place, no need to spend money for the venue.
But tell that to COA.
Again, Peping and the POC can have the 2019 SEAG all to themselves.