SABLAYAN, Occidental Mindoro—The municipal government has questioned the authority given by Department of Education (DepEd) to provincial governors to approve the hosting of regional sports competitions.
This cropped up as Occidental Mindoro Gov. Mario Gene Mendiola disapproved the hosting by Siblayan of the Mimaropa Regional Athletic Association (Mimaropa RAA) sports meet scheduled in February 2017 despite official endorsements from the DepEd and other government agencies.
The DepEd, through Regional Director Dig Digno and Occidental Mindoro schools division superintendent of Danilo Roxas, formally invited the Sablayan local government to participate in the bidding after it was validated by the former as qualified to host the annual regional sports event.
But at the eleventh hour of the bidding with its rival town, Brooke’s Point, of Palawan, Roxas announced that “with the absence of Governor Mendiola’s endorsement, and even if Sablayan wins the bidding, my hands are somewhat tied.”
In his letter to Digno, Mendiola stressed that “there is a need first for ample time for discussion with authorities before the provincial government could endorse the bid to the department.”
The DepEd policy states that hosting by any municipality in any province requires first the endorsement of its governor to ensure that the “whole province is indeed in support of the activity, so that not only the host municipality will be disrupted by the activity.” It also requires, Digno said, that the letter of intent be endorsed by the provincial governor.
Councilor Walter Marquez, however, questioned the DepEd policy. “If the provincial governor has the crucial and final approval of the province’s hosting, why was the invitation to bid not directly addressed by DepEd to the province’s officials?” he asked.
Owing to political bickering, Occidental Mindoro has not hosted a regional sports event since 1971 or 45 years ago. Palawan province has been successively hosting the Mimaropa RAA because of the active participation and cooperation of its leaders regardless of their political affiliations, they said.
Mendiola heads the local Liberal Party while Sablayan Mayor Eduardo Gadiano heads the ruling PDP-Laban, the political party of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Marquez also asked “why the bid of any municipality can be superseded by the sole decision of the governor where in fact the bidding and all the preparations, especially budgetary requirements, are already on their way.”
Gadiano was also appalled by the “unpredictable change of mind” of Mendiola since the local government unit (LGU) is already preparing to host the games.
“The construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool costing P20 million to be shouldered by us is about to start this September. It will be fully completed in time for the start of the 2017 sports meet,” he said.
As part of its preparation, the Sablayan LGU, Gadiano said, will also give incentives to student-athletes and other delegates from five island provinces and two cities of Mimaropa. These incentives are free five sacks of rice, free transportation within the municipality, and free sightseeing tours within the duration of the regional sports meet.
“The provincial government has a budget of P8-million for the athletic event and Sablayan can provide a counterpart amount. Or we can shoulder it wholly even without the provincial government’s financial support,” Mayor Gadiano said.
Sablayan municipality is a first class agricultural municipality of Occidental Mindoro with an annual internal revenue allotment (IRA) of P442,468,122, not to mention its local income. It is the country’s, or probably Southeast Asia’s, largest municipality for having a land area almost thrice that of Cavite province.
Even Mendiola himself in the 2015 provincial sports meet attended by delegates from 11 Occidental Mindoro municipalities announced during its opening ceremony that “the 2017 Mimaropa regional sports meet will certainly be held here in Sablayan.”
Gadiano said he “cannot understand the sudden change of mind of our governor. This is so because we lost this much-awaited opportunity” to show the outside world what Sablayan can offer.
He added that by hosting the regional sports event, they can tour the students around Apo Reef Natural Park, acknowledged as a World Heritage Park; the Mt. Siburan Forest, the last refuge of endangered birds and other wildlife and fauna; the Mt. Iglit-Mt. Baco Tamaraw Reservation, the only one in the world; the world-famous Sablayan Zipline, the longest island-to-island zipline; and even the 9,000-hectare Sablayan Penal Farm.
The municipal mayor also criticized the provincial governor for “depriving the youth of the province the chance to experience various sports events very necessary to discipline them as future leaders of our country.”