Council to inspect track oval today

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Council, along with the contractor of the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) track oval, will be inspecting the facility today to finalize its recommendation before the Office of the Mayor.

In a press conference yesterday, Cebu City Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia said that after multiple agreements and negotiations with CCSC track oval contractor SBD Builders to meet a fixed date for the rehabilitation, he is letting the City Council also come up with their own recommendations.

He said once the council comes up with a recommendation he will oblige. With this, Garcia said that the council, to be headed by council infrastructure committee chairman Councilor Jerry Guardo, is set to check the oval today.

“I will wait for their recommendations,” said Garcia.

It was reported that SBD Builders announced they will spend ?3.8 million from their own pocket to repair damage to the oval despite saying that the damage was caused by the holding of cultural events.

SBD Builders owner Shaun Doherty said during the executive session last October 30 that after the directive to refurbish the oval following they had to wait for three weeks for the materials to arrive from abroad. He added they were supposed to mobilize these materials last October 23 to no avail due to bad weather.

With this, Doherty appealed for a week-long extension including the holidays since most of his workers filed for vacation leave. This was approved by Garcia.

Last October 9, Garcia gave SBD Builders until the end of October to finish rehabilitating the oval. He added that in their last conversation, SBD Builders pleaded to start the civil works in the first week of November.

In the absence of commencement of this civil works, the termination of contract with SBD Builders is looming.

Garcia said he isn’t keen on the idea of foregoing the rehabilitation until after the celebrations of the Sinulog 2025.

“Because it has been long overdue, it has been delayed for so long, unya Sinulog is January unya basin naay activity inig January huwaton nasad nato, so I will just wait for the recommendation and I will decide as the chief executive on whether atong ipadayon inig November or atong i-postpone after Sinulog which is on February,” said Garcia.

Previously, Doherty said the materials used to rubberize the oval weren’t substandard and attributed the damage to the cultural events held in the area where the surface was affected by the transportation of the materials used to build a makeshift stage.

He said this was reaffirmed when they applied for an insurance claim but were denied since the damage was allegedly due to “negligence”.

With this, Doherty said they will no longer take care of damage to the oval unless it was caused by sports events as that would be unfair on their part.

This is as the Cebu City Government is eyeing to return to CCSC as the primary venue for the 2025 Sinulog celebrations. Doherty said the oval is only compatible with sports events. — (FREEMAN)