My sports geek friends are eagerly awaiting the 30th Sea Games and they are paying no mind at all to the horrendous traffic it’ll create all over Metro Manila as well as in the various venues outside of NCR.
Right in the middle of recalling various sports statistics and some esoteric bits of sports lore, one of my friends yelled aloud, “Oh my God! Why does the SEA Games preps cost SEVEN BILLION PESOS?!”
My friend and I exchanged blank stares as we shrugged our shoulders.
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Thing is, neither of us have come across news reports about the projected cost of the SEA Games preparations that detailed how much was being spent on what.
All that we’re aware of are bits and pieces of “intriga” about the cost of uniforms and such. (Who knows why they’re that pricey? Is it because of the designer? Were materials sourced from some quantum realm?)
I heard from a friend that the 30th SEA Games has a pretty huge and well funded mainstream and social media team, but it looks like they’re not doing a good enough job otherwise these intrigas would have been rebutted by now.
For instance, do you know how much the tickets to the SEA Games opening ceremony costs?
Nevermind that the Patron A seats (front and center) are worth P12,000 each and the Upper Box seats behind that are worth P4,000.
The seats for the sports loving masa cost P1,500 for the General Admission Center and P1,000 General Admissions Side.
Well, if you really… really… REALLY LOVE our SEA Games athletes (whoever they are and that’s the thing, right? For P7.5 billion, you’d expect that our athletes would be household names by now. If they were, perhaps P1,000 bucks for the nosebleed section wouldn’t be a bad deal.)
You’ll have no choice but to SPLURGE!
Otherwise, watch the whole thing on TV like everyone else.
Of course, that’ll mean you’ll have to pass up a chance to see the giant 50 meter tall P50 million cauldron that the Philippine Sports Commission commissioned.
The higanteng kaldero apparently cost P4.4 million to design. The base or foundation of the kaldero cost P13.4 million and kaldero itself cost P32 million.
Apparently, Senator Franklin Drilon took issue with this. (Was he concerned he’d be boiled in it?)
Old senator porky face says it’d be exorbitantly priced if it were to be used only once. And as much as I detest the guy, I find myself having to agree that it is indeed a lot of money to spend on a kaldero.
For that price, the SEA Games kaldero better look like its worth it! People ought to be crying when they go home after seeing it and telling their grandchildren about the awesome SEA Games kaldero.
Thing is, perhaps there’d be less issues against the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) IF government officials weren’t part of it.
As we already know, Phisgoc is headed by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
Aaaand, here’s the thing… Phisgoc is a private organization and presumably not subject to the same procedures as well as auditing as government agencies.
PHISGOC is a non-stock, non-profit organization created to oversee the preparations and execution of the Philippines’ hosting of the 30th SEA Games.
All government agencies were directed by President Rodrigo Duterte under Memorandum Circular No. 56 to “render full support and assistance” to PHISGOC in preparation for the regional sports meet.
However, Duterte himself raised corruption concerns regarding PHISGOC’s handling of the SEA Games, pointing out that “there’s a lot of corruption in the private sector.”
But the alleged corruption, according to Duterte, supposedly does not involve Cayetano — his staunch ally whom he endorsed to become Speaker for 15 months, before being replaced by another ally, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco.
Hindi lang siguro makapagsalita si Pangulo.
Writer.
Porky Drilon , the Sleeping Swine of the Senate, is very much concerned of the huge “Kaldero”; because if he is caught sleeping again; they might “roast” (“litsonin” ) him there….
Anyway, almost any government project, handled by politicians is subject to corruption…the PHISGOC is not subject to any Audit. So, Cayetano and his cahoots are on “fiesta time” to plunder the fund….
We will see , if the SEA Games is a huge loss, or a huge gain for the Philippines !
If the Yellowtards like Sen. Porky Drill on said that Pres. Duterte’s Build, Build, Build projects are overpriced & stained with corruption then he should make a law to ban taxes & shut down the BIR so that there’ll be no “overpriced” infra projects in our country. Problem solved if he & his Yellowtards wants that in our country instead of media publicity & noises over their dirty & useless mouth of theirs. They all bark but no bite!!!
It’s just too bad that the cauldron would now be associated with corruption. Cayetano seems to be getting away with this so easily. What would happen now to the spirit of the upcoming event?
Wait so, the thing that costs 50 Million pesos is only that 50-meter tall monument?? I thought it’s the entire stadium behind it, in which case I would think is a really huge cost-saver. I thought the “Cauldron” is supposed to describe the shape of the whole stadium. But just the tall stick alone? Yeah, I would also think there’s something fishy there.
Cayetano seems to be getting shade lately. I don’t really know if it’s justified and true, but there are a lot of shades thrown at him.
I missed you. Not enough yellow in my diet.
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Did you just…… Throw shade at me and called me a yellowtard?
I know I rarely post here, but do I actually have that sort of reputation? Or maybe you have mistaken me for somebody else? Is it because I argue some points with webmaster benign0 about his more controversial editorials?
I might have accepted it if you may have called me a Dutertard instead, because I somehow support him even though I still don’t agree to every Duterte policy made. But a Yellowtard? Damn, that’s pretty far off. I even remember posting things here that are anti-yellow.
This is rather disappointing. I expected better from a GRP contributor.
Just because Drilon questioned the Cauldron budget, and I also happened to question the Cauldron budget, that I somehow agree with Drilon and thus make me yellow. Is that how your logic goes? It’s not like I had an independent mind and for this one occasion raised suspicion on Cayetano’s handling of budgets. Nah, it can’t be like that. I must be a yellow sheep that I puppet everything my yellow masters want me to say and I will constantly appear in GRP to openly antagonize everyone because Dutertards are dumb. Yeah that must be it.
*sigh*
Do pardon my rather aggressive reply. I have now calmed down a bit.
But do humor me with information. I’m genuinely curious what made you think I’m yellow?
I’m sort of looking back at my previous comments (I’m a guest here so it’s quite hard remembering where I posted) on which ones that happen to could make me remotely align with the Liberal Party’s ideologies.
I wanted to reserve my concerns until after we actually see the whole event play out, but there is a recent post about the venues for the SEA Games and a glaring venue stood out, STARMALL to be the venue for bowling.
https://2019seagames.com/venues.html
What does that “mean”? Is the Phisgoc viewing Bowling as a “lesser sport”? Or did they forget to schedule a venue for it that’s why they only made a last minute “no choice” and went with STARMALL?
I don’t comprehend the “imbalance” that is kind of glaring.