The controversial 30th SEAG cauldron. Photo by Joann M. Valenciano
CLARK FREEPORT — Will the SEA Games “kaldera” be Pres. Duterte’s version of the late Pres. Quirino’s golden “arinola”?
The P50-million symbolic cauldron built in time for the SEA Games at the New Clark City has become fodder for netizens who, in unison, held the view that the cost could have been better spent for urgent needs in a country as Third World as the Philippines.
Netizen Manny del Rosario commented: “That cauldron can be repurposed into a planggana for laundry and kaldero for paella.”
Another netizen identifying himself as Morx said: “Ito na ba ang kaldero ng Dios na nag-aalis ng kasalanan ng sanlibutan?”
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has vowed to question sports officials over the P700 million fund released to the private foundation Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phigoc) Foundation Inc. for the Southeast Asian Games.
“Why was this given to a private sector? Who ordered it? What would it be used for? Is it legal to transfer P700 million public funds to a private foundation?” he asked.
Drilon also questioned the P50-million cost of the cauldron, saying that each million could have built a school building.
Phisgoc Foundation Inc. is chaired by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
It was formally recognized by Pres. Duterte on Jan. 25 by issuing Memorandum Circular 56, which directs all government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations to extend their full support to the body.
The controversy, however, has recently been fueled by reports that some P50 million was spent for the construction of the symbolic cauldron at the sports center at the New Clark City. It is a towering structure holding in its summit a symbolic cauldron designed to hold an Olympics-type fire.
It has turned out, however, that the opening ceremonies for the SEA Games would be held at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, and that New Clark City would host only four of 64 sports events.
New Clark City, however, would host the closing rites. Yet one Sung Empress remarked: “Payag ako sa P50M kaldero if we can reuse that to boil plunderers alive.”
The design of the cauldron was reported to have cost P4,400,000, while its foundation cost P13,440,000. The biggest amount of P32 million was for the construction and the installation of the cauldron.
The cauldron structure was designed by National Artist Francisco Bobby Mañosa. This was his last work before he died last Feb. 2019 at the age of 88. He was popularly known as the architect of the Coconut Palace and the EDSA Shrine.
SEA Games organizers said commemorative wrist tags are also to be distributed to sportsmen, at the cost of P6 million.
The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) has clarified it did not fund the P50-million symbolic cauldron, even as it justified its construction anyway.
“The cauldron located just outside the New Clark City Athletics Stadium came from the budget of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC),” the BCDA said in a statement.
“We would like to reiterate however that we fully support the move of the PSC, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), and the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) to construct a cauldron that would serve as a symbol of the government’s thrust of giving value and importance to our Filipino athletes and sports programs,” the BCDA said.
It stressed that “monuments like the SEA Games cauldron speak volumes of how the government values its athletes, and this will be a monument that will last for many generations and inspire athletes present and future to bring glory to the country.”
The statement recalled that “during the Senate’s deliberation on the proposed budget of PSC, PHISGOC Chairman and House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano pointed out that the cauldron is even cheaper than the one built by Singapore four years ago at P63 million.”
“The last design project of the late National Artist for Architecture Francisco’“Bobby’ Mañosa, the SEA Games cauldron in New Clark City is a tribute to our Filipino athletes who have been neglected for decades,” the BCDA also said.
A netizen named Vhie expressed some misgivings: “I hope that multi-billion project for #SEAGames2019 will not become just like what happened to Cebu International Convention Center. A multimillion project too, used only once. People squatted in, and the place became like a very big bathroom, smelly and all. Left to rot after!”
Some have said the New Clark City cauldron could yet be Duterte’s golden “arinola.” During the term of Pres. Elpidio Quirino, controversy erupted over his alleged ownership of a golden “arinola” or bedpan matching a golden bed, an ownership that glued corruption to his name long after his presidency, regardless of the fact that no one has ever proven the existence of the golden items.
In the case of the cauldron, the evidence reaches meters up in the sky, solid and backed by documents boldly admitting its P50-million cost.
