BAGUIO CITY – The city school board created a technical working group to study the feasibility of putting up an indoor sports building within the newly refurbished Baguio Athletic Bowl to cater to the requirements of indoor sports using the P60 million earlier earmarked by the city government from its 2015 supplemental budget to strengthen the city’s contention for the hosting of the Palarong Pambansa by 2018.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan vouched for the put up of the indoor sports complex in the vacant area between the main grandstand and the tennis court to maximize the utilization of the Athletic Bowl as one of the complete sports facilities in the region.
The technical working group will be composed of representatives from the Division of city Schools of the Department of Education, city buildings and architecture office (CBAO), city sports office, Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the city council committees on education and sports development among other interested sports organizations.
“There is sufficient space where the proposed indoor sports complex will be built so that we will be able to hold majority of our sports events within the Athletic Bowl, especially during regional and national sports competitions, so as not to scatter the crowd in the different venues” Domogan stressed.
For his part, Bringas suggested that the committee to be created should make sure that the indoor sports complex will be compliant to sports standards in order to boost the city’s chances of hosting more regional and national sports events in the future.
It can be recalled that the national government earmarked funds for the continuing upgrading of the Athletic Bowl, specially the rehabilitation of the main grandstand and the put up of the rubberized track oval, among other major improvements to make the city’s sports facility complaint to PSC standards and allow the city to host numerous regional and national sports events by the time the rehabilitation has been completed.
The committee will be reporting out to the city school board its findings and recommendations on the proposal so that the city government could already use the funds that it allocated from its supplemental budget for the continuous improvement of the city’s premier sports facility.
At the same time, the city school board is also looking for a permanent site for archery competitions considering that its existing site within the vicinity of the Athletic Bowl was already used by the education department as the site where the senior high school building of the Baguio City National High School (BCNHS) is now being constructed.
Domogan instructed sports officials of the city government and the education department to locate a permanent site for archery enthusiasts so that it will encourage more archery athletes to be actively involved in the said competition that will bring honor and pride to the city in future regional, national and even international competitions./Dexter A. See
