The Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) oval resembled an airport runway Wednesday night, I was told yesterday. Emergency lights had to be installed to ensure that runners could see the potholes and avoid stepping on them and getting injured.
I apologize if I seem to be beating a dead horse by raising the CCSC issue once again. But I go to the oval at least three times a week, and I have seen firsthand how quickly its rubberized surface has deteriorated. My wife and I pay the entrance fee, so we have every right to expect the oval to look and feel like the recently rehabilitated facility—rebuilt at enormous cost to the city government—that it was supposed to be.
Besides, this is personal. One early morning a couple of months ago, I nearly fell flat on my face after stumbling over a warped section of the rubberized surface.
Should I simply stop expecting better? The fact is that the oval was already showing signs of deterioration just weeks after the contractor turned it over to the City Government two years ago.
How the contractor won the bid to rehabilitate the oval in 2024 remains nothing short of perplexing. He had no experience undertaking a project of this nature. Worse, he had previously failed to complete a bridge project in Pulangbato.
Or perhaps it is not perplexing after all.
When CCSC manager Jovito Taborada began asking questions about how the rehabilitation was being carried out, he was promptly summoned to City Hall and scolded by a high-ranking official while another looked on, laughing.
All of this happened in 2024, when Nestor Archival was not yet mayor and Albert Tan was not yet city administrator. They are now.
Mayor Archival knows the pitiful condition of the CCSC oval because he walked several laps there with us last year. I also once asked Administrator Tan what the City’s plans were for the facility. His only response was that the City has the money.
The 2024 rehabilitation cost around P54 million. The next repair will almost certainly cost even more—unless, of course, the 2024 price was already inflated.
I have also heard that the CCSC has a substantial bank deposit that could help finance the replacement of the deteriorating rubberized surface. If that is true, funding should not be an obstacle, especially given Administrator Tan’s assurance.
Please, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Administrator—or whoever now wields real authority over the city’s sports center—do something about the CCSC oval’s dilapidated condition. Do not gamble with the safety and well-being of the thousands of people who walk and run there every day.