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Opposition officials in Cebu City yesterday challenged the administration to stop ?basketball terrorism? and urged cooperation in implementing the city?s sports programs.
Opposition leader Jonathan Guardo called for an end to bickering over whose wooden backboards should be used in neighborhood basketball courts.
?If the purpose of the My City (MYCT) Games is really for anti-drug addiction, then why remove the boards that we donated that are already in place?? Guardo asked a press conference yesterday.
Acting Mayor Michael Rama said the basketball courts where the opposition claimed there was ?basketball terrorism,? the latest being the court in barangay Lahug, were all owned by the city government.
He said City Hall has rights over these courts as well as responsibility for their maintenance.
Lahug barangay captain Mary Ann de los Santos, another opposition leader, said boards donated by the opposition have been in place since 2007. She said these should not be removed anymore or else resources would go to waste.
?Granting that it is a government-owned property, they have been remiss. Thats why we are filling in the void,? De los Santos said.
?We have been doing this (donating) since the last elections. Why are they doing this only now, months before the next elections? Where were they in 2007 and 2008? Why only show themselves now??
She said that having the opposition?s backboards removed from basketball courts and replaced by those from the city ?pains us.?
?We are not using government funds. Good for them they have been using government funds to advance their own political motive,? De los Santos said.
She said City Hall has been neglecting basketball courts, which was why, as barangay captain, she ?filled in for the city government? in Lahug?s.
She said that last Friday, the barangay secretary of Lahug received a call from a sitio Golden Valley resident who reported that men from the city government took away backboards donated by the opposition and replaced with those from the city.
When the secretary went to the sitio to hold on to the boards, City Hall Education Consultant Joy Augustus Young called him up and threatened to punch him if he insisted, said De los Santos.
She criticized City Hall for sending policemen and a demolition team to take down the opposition?s boards and install those from City Hall.
?There?s so much snatching in our barangay and they never solved it. But when it comes to basketball boards, they send the police,? De los Santos said.
She said that if the city sent basketball boards through barangay officials, they would not hesitate to put them up, ?for the betterment of the barangay.?
Under cover of night last Friday, De los Santos removed the basketball backboards that the city government installed in Golden Valley and replaced these with her own.
Youth leaders in Golden Valley, led by Reynor Gillen, earlier claimed that they had requested backboards from City Hall. These were delivered last Thursday.
But allies of the opposition, led by Golden Valley Homeowners Association president Jovito Atillo, arrived with their own backboards on Friday morning and attempted to install these in place of the youth leaders? backboards.
Arguments between the youth leaders and the opposition resulted in a resident calling for police.
Atillo relented and allowed the city?s backboards to be installed.
But at 9 p.m. that night, De los Santos brought her own team in and took down the city?s backboards, installing those she donated instead.
