The controversial SEA Games cauldron estimated to cost around P55 million. Image: courtesy of the BCDA
From the P55-million cauldron down to accommodation mishaps for foreign athletes, problems have started to hound the upcoming 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games even before it started.
Celebrities took to social media to air their grievances and slam SEA Games organizers, specifically House speaker and Philippine Southeast Asian Games Committee (Phisgoc) Foundation Inc. chairman Alan Peter Cayetano.
Artist-activist Juan Miguel Severo accused Cayetano of “gaslighting” after the latter complained yesterday, Nov. 23, that the opposition’s criticism of the SEA Games issues “hurt the country.”
“The criticisms are valid. They hurt your ego. What hurts the country and its reputation is your amateurish handling of the games despite its bloated budget,” Severo posted on Twitter earlier today, Nov. 24. “I know college orgs that could have done better than [your] lot and for less.”
On a separate tweet, Severo said that the critics are not the ones embarrassing the country, but the “stupid and corrupt” organizers of the event.
“Hindi hinihila ng mga kritiko ang imahe ng Pilipinas pababa,” he said. “Ang mga banô at magnanakaw sa organizers ang naglubog sa atin sa ilalim. Mas nakakahiya ang maging bulag tayo sa sarili nating mga pagkukulang.”
(The critics are not trying to bring the country down. The stupid and corrupt organizers are the ones who dug our own graves. It is more embarrassing to be blind of our own flaws.)
https://twitter.com/TheRainBro/status/1198434821384523777
Singer and host Bituin Escalante meanwhile pleaded for the Phisgoc to stop messing around, as their success reflects the country, as posted on her Twitter earlier today.
“I sincerely want the #SEAGames2019 to succeed as many friends are competing and performing and the success of all, including our organizers, is the country’s,” she said.
“Kaya please Lang, ayusin niyo yan Phisgoc! Kitang kita ang discrepancies. Umayos kayo (So please, stop messing around Phisgoc! The discrepancies are so obvious. Fix this)!” she added.
I sincerely want the #SEAGames2019 to succeed as many friends are competing and performing and the success of all , including our organizers, is the country’s.
Kaya please Lang, ayusin niyo yan Phisgoc! Kitang kita ang discrepancies. Umayos kayo!— bituin escalante (@gobituin) November 24, 2019
Singer Leah Navarro, a staunch critic of the administration, took another hit at the P55-million cauldron amid Typhoon Ramon’s devastation of crops and infrastructure, worth P618.7 million, in Cagayan.
“Tha (sic) 50M spent on that ugly Kaldero could’ve been spent on relief and rebuilding in #RamonPH damaged towns in Cagayan,” she said. “Shame on Duterte, Cayetano and the rest of this admin.”
Tha 50M spent on that ugly Kaldero could’ve been spent on relief and rebuilding in #RamonPH damaged towns in Cagayan. Shame on Duterte, Cayetano and the rest of this admin. https://t.co/gCXSx276K2
— Leah Navarro (@leahnavarro) November 24, 2019
“Liway” Director Kip Oebanda meanwhile defended SEA Games critics, saying that they are not complaining “just because we are nega,” as posted on his Twitter earlier today.
“It’s because 6 Billion pesos was spent on this. If we decided a small-scale, cheap event was more appropriate, OK lang e (then it is okay),” he said. “But if it’s this bad with that budget it’s incompetence and/or corruption.”
https://twitter.com/kipoebanda/status/1198458302897610753
Actress Agot Isidro, a vocal critic of the Duterte administration, meanwhile suggested that the SEA Games organizers should just admit that they made a mistake on the P55-million cauldron, as posted on her Twitter account last Friday, Nov. 22.
“Bakit kasi di na lang aminin na nagkamali sila sa cauldron? Kasi ang tataas ng Pride (Why won’t they just admit that they made a mistake about the cauldron? Because they are too proud),” she said.
“And that is how you use ‘Pride’ as an example of one of the seven deadly sins,” she added, seemingly in reference to Senate President Tito Sotto III’s questioning of the Department of Education, on why they are promoting “pride,” which he mistook as the one referred to in the Bible.
Bakit kasi di na lang aminin na nagkamali sila sa cauldron? 🤷🏻♀️
Kasi ang tataas ng Pride*.
*and that is how you use ‘Pride’ as an example of one of the seven deadly sins. 😏
— Agot Isidro (@agot_isidro) November 22, 2019
The Philippines is set to host the SEA Games from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 in New Clark City, Pampanga and other venues. JB
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