BY CHRISTINE MONCADA
TALKS between officials of the Philippine Sports Commission
and University of the Philippines regarding the archery range at the UP-Diliman
campus have bogged down, prompting PSC officials to transfer the training of
national archers to the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
Yesterday, PSC Executive Director Cesar Pradas said the
agency will just convert an open space beside the track oval at the Philsports
Arena into an archery range where archers can start preparing for international
events—the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand in December and next year’s Beijing
Olympics.
The archery range at Diliman was shut down by UP officials
nearly a month ago apparently due to non-payment of rental fees. The range was
constructed back in the 90s under a Memorandum of Agreement signed by UP
officials and Cecil Hechanova, the founding chairman of the PSC.
National Archery Association of the Philippines
Secretary-General Ligaya Manalang said over the weekend that UP management wants
to charge the PSC an hourly rate of P500 for the use of the range.
"Hindi yata nagkaayos sa usapan tungkol sa existing MOA.
Mataas din ang sinisingil ng UP kaya ililipat na lang natin ang mga archers sa
Ultra," Pradas said.
Pradas added PSC and NAAP officials have conducted an ocular inspection of
the proposed venue and archery officials have given it their thumbs up. He did
not say, however, how long the range at Philsport will take to construct.
National archers have been idle for nearly a month now.
