Himantayon nga Kagay-anon

I went to Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Center in Cagayan de Oro City yesterday since it’s been awhile I never been there for a walk or jogging, because they have major rehabilitation works of the 33-year old Pelaez Sports Center. It’s been almost 5 months now since they started the project and I was so excited to see for myself the progress and man… I was so impressed of the great job when I saw the new track oval and the Football field. They are almost done because they’ve been working night and day just to meet the scheduled time to finish the whole job. Because the 3rd Philippine Olympic Festival & National Championships on December 11 to 16 will be held here for the first time.

They’ve been working now to complete putting the eight-lane synthetic surface 4,584-square-meter track oval - a state-of-the-art rubberized oval. The estimated figure of this project was P30 million.

The sports center is being managed by a council whose members are representatives of the provincial government of Misamis Oriental, the city government of Cagayan de Oro, and the Department of Education.

Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Center, formerly known as Marcos Sports Center, was the venue for Palarong Pambansa in 1975, 1978 and 1988, as well as two international sports events on track and field and softball, according to Megdonio Llamera, secretary of the Integrated Sports Development Council.

“We used to have the best sports facilities, outside Metro Manila, at that time,” he recalled.

Yeah, the last time I witnessed Pelaez Sports Center being repaired at it’s best was last 1988 for the Palarong Pambansa but after that it has been neglected for that long years. It even burned 3 times and the north wing bleachers is not in good condition now, I just hope they will include it on this renovation constructions.

Experts from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will then conduct an inspection of the entire rehabilitation work to verify if the synthetic surface track oval would be within the international standards as well as the other facilities which include, among others, the Olympic-sized swimming pool, boxing gym, tennis and pelota courts, basketball and volleyball courts.

I’m gonna be there for the upcoming opening of the 3rd Philippine Olympic Festival & National Championships next week.

This is the Don Gregorio Pelaez Sports Center before the major rehabilitation construction…