Presidential son to help city build a skate park

CEBU, Philippines — Presidential son Vincent Marcos has expressed interest in helping materialize a long-overdue Cebuano skateboarders’ dream of having their own standard skate park here.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced yesterday that the youngest son of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. promised him during a meeting to help build the city’s skate park.

Cebu is home to most of the top national skateboarders in the country including the first Filipino skateboarding Olympian Margielyn Didal. However, the city has no standard skate park of its own.

Rama said he discussed the project with Vinny during their meeting in Manila in one of the events of the League of Cities of the Philippines. According to Rama, Vinny told him of his plans for the project, including a multi-purpose training and instructional facility.

The budget will be sourced out through the office of House speaker Martin Romualdez. Based on the plans, it will be a P312-million project which has an indoor multi-purpose complex, an indoor skate park, and an open space that will be at the South Road Properties.

“It’s a very good project…And we can also host international events on this,” said Rama.

Rama had already sent a letter to Romualdez asking for funds for the project.

The multi-purpose building itself will have a 1,000-person seating capacity and is fully air-conditioned which will also allow the city to host sporting events, conferences, educational and cultural events seminars as well as evacuation and relief centers in times of emergency.

Integrated into the buildings’ design are its ancillary services such as a health center and police and fire department satellite offices. (FREEMAN)