THE PLAN of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to make Pond A of the South Road Properties (SRP) a docking site for dragon boats was met with optimism by the Cebu dragon boat Community.
In a Facebook post Monday night, Osmeña responded to a message by Paul Ouano of the Poseidon Paddlers, who sought the mayor’s help on a need for a new docking area and one or two new boats for use in their training.
“How does Pond A in the SRP sound? Also, I will raise funding for a new boat. Can we discuss this in person? Someone from my office will contact you to schedule an appointment,” Osmeña’s post read.
Arnold Balais, team captain of the Philippine Accessible Disability Services (PADS) dragon boat team, said that this plan will be a huge boost to the dragon boat community in Cebu, saying it will address the present problem of insufficient number of boats and a free docking facility.
“Makapabibo sad sa dragon boat [community] as a whole,” said Balais. (This will enliven the dragon boat community as a whole.)
The Sugbu Mighty Dragons welcomed this development, too.
“The Dragon Boat Community in Cebu will greatly benefit from a publicly funded docksite, boats, paddles and PFD’s (Personal Flotation Device),” said Kareen Benavides, Team Manager of the Mighty Dragons.
Presently, Cebu dragon boat teams are all independent teams. There is still no Cebu Dragon Boat federation in existence here in Cebu, unlike in Manila which has two and runs two dock sites, according to Benavides and team captain TJ Camacho.
This is not the first time that Osmeña responded to sports-related Facebook messages. It can be recalled that last May, the mayor responded to Rauell Ygot’s open letter that requested for a skate park to be built in Cebu.
Ouano, in his message to Osmeña on Monday, said “there are as many as seven teams sharing only one boat, a very dilapidated one already, docked in Cebu Yacht Club.”
He added that the boat that they are now using “has holes already, water sips in, so we have to kandos (scoop) the water out every 10 to 15 minutes.”
Ouano said that every practice without a boat of their own is very costly because they will have to pay a rental of P600 per boat and another P384 for the use of the Yacht Club’s ramp.
Ouano said he is still waiting for the scheduled appointment with the mayor.