Sports complex mess

Dave Achondo

RIGHT under our noses, the government-owned Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Complex has allegedly been “privatize,” and it has been like that for so long — long before my “millennial“ era came to be.

According to its general manager, the one running the sports center, which is owned by city hall, capitol and the Department of Education, is a “private entity.”

Councilor Ian Nacaya started digging into this issue a week ago. It looks like partisan politics has started creeping into the discussion, making it confusing.

I disagree with the Misamis Oriental Integrated Sports Council general manager President Elipe it is a private entity, that the Commission on Audit has no jurisdiction over it, and that it should not be asked about its finances and expenditures by COA because it’s a private entity.

He even went on: “Wala gani ko nag-remit sa province, city pa kaha nga self-liquidating man ang Moisc. We are independent,” Elipe said.

Reading his quote on the paper made me feel something was definitely up.

I agree with Nacaya who pointed out: “It seems that the local government of Cagayan de Oro has not enjoyed as part owner of the sports complex for at least two to three decades.”

Logic tells us that the operations of the sports complex cannot be considered private because it is owned by the provincial and city governments and the Department of Education, and they have seats in the sports council.

Even Mayor Oscar Moreno disagreed with Elipe when he said that the “Misamis Oriental Integrated Sports Council is not a private entity. It has no juridical personality, not having been incorporated or organized as a corporation. It is an unincorporated joint venture owned by the province, the city and [Department of Education]. Thus, it is a public entity just like its owners.”

And now we learn that ex-councilor Elipe has been supposedly barred from government by a decision of the ombudsman pertaining to an administrative case filed when he was still with city hall. That makes the appointment of Elipe as the general manager of the sports complex quite problematic if he is proven wrong in his assertion that he is privately employed.

If the sports complex is really being operated by a private entity as Elipe claims, then I guess one way to find out is if Moisc could show a business permit from the city government or certification from the Security Exchange Commission, among others, that would show it is a private entity.

As for me, I can’t even put myself to see the sports complex as a public-private partnership-type of facility because nothing is being shared.

It seems like a thorough investigation is really needed because Elipe is confident that he is right, and those who said otherwise are wrong.

(Just a side note: Remember when the sports complex was renovated? The oval was rubberized. Look at it now. It hasn’t been propoerly maintained. And I don’t think that the materials used were defective. It just that it looks like crap now because of poor maintenance. Where are the funds for that?)