Attorney Frank Malilong may have beaten me to it, but I think I deserve to vent my frustration regarding the ongoing rehabilitation of the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC), which was suddenly closed by the City Government in May last year.
Granted that Attorney Malilong and his friends have been habitues of the oval much longer than I have, still I continue to take the matter to heart because the CCSC had become part of my daily routine for more than a decade.
Imagine how I felt when that was all taken away from me. To say that it came as a shock would have been the biggest understatement of the year.
I still remember it like it was yesterday.
It was a Thursday, my day-off. The date was May 18, 2023.
I had just finished changing and was ready to head to the oval for my afternoon jog when I read on our group chat that the facility was closed to the public until further notice.
We all knew the facility would undergo renovation since it would be the main venue for the Palarong Pambansa in July this year, but we never thought they would shut it down just like that. We also thought they would only partially close the CCSC until they laid the new rubber on the track oval like they did back in 2012.
What I couldn’t understand then and still couldn’t understand now is why close the facility without prior warning?
Was it too much of an effort on the part of the City Government to give the public a heads up?
I raised the same question when the City suddenly closed the V-hire terminal along Junquera St. just three weeks before, leaving many commuters confused and wondering how they’d get home that day.
I figured the City had its own reasons for both moves that, no matter how you looked at it, totally disregarded the plight of the common man and woman.
And then to find out that no work was actually being done on the track oval until early this year was like a slap in the face.
Why then deprive us the use of the facility and why deprive the City of much-needed income?
Did you know the CCSC was earning an average of P60,000 a day when it was open? Because aside from the track oval, many also went there to swim, play badminton, box and do the zumba, among other things.
Now you do the math.
For weeks on end, I asked our reporters to get an update on the track oval and they would always be given the runaround.
It was just recently I found out that the contract for the undertaking was awarded only last October and the contractor was given the notice to proceed only last January.
And yet the City closed the facility in May last year. Go figure.
And as of this writing, the new rubber on the oval has yet to be installed. Although, and it’s a big ALTHOUGH, the contractor told the acting mayor the whole thing – rubber-laying and curing – would be completed before the end of June.
But even when all is well and done, the public still can’t return to the CCSC. They have to wait until the Palaro games are over in July.
Heck, I waited one year so what’s another two months?