Panaad capacity to double

By Joaquin Henson (The Philippine Star) MANILA, Philippines - A P200 million budget is being proposed to double the viewing capacity of the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City and Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) chairman Monico Puentevella said yesterday a big source of funds will be assured if only PAGCOR remits five percent of its gross income to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) as mandated by R. A. 6847.

Panaad is the venue for the national football team’s match against Mongolia in the opener of their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualifying home-and-away series tonight.

Philippine Football Federation (PFF) president Mariano Araneta Jr., who arrived in Bacolod City from Manila the other night, said 18,200 tickets were printed for the match with this distribution – 10,000 general admission free to the public, 2,000 grandstand section free to the public, 2,200 reserved seats for VIPs and 4,000 for sale at P300 each. Araneta said the tickets were “allocated properly.”

To meet the AFC’s lighting requirements, an additional 300 lux was installed at Panaad last Thursday. The fixtures came from the Paglaum Stadium nearby and brought Panaad’s lighting capacity to 800 lux which was the level for the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup matches in Vietnam last year. PSC chairman Richie Garcia arranged the transfer of the lights to Panaad after receiving the go-signal from Department of Education secretary Br. Armin Luistro. The PSC purchased the lights for Paglaum which is owned by the Department of Education. Panaad is owned by the Negros Occidental provincial government.

Panaad was built in 1998 during the term of Gov. Lito Coscolluela to host the Centennial Palaro. Puentevella was then a PSC commissioner. Now, it’s ready for a refurbishing.

Puentevella said the budget to boost Panaad’s capacity could be easily raised if FIFA, generous Middle East countries, the national government and a corporate sponsor like PLDT contribute to the fund.

PLDT chairman Manny V. Pangilinan went to Panaad two weeks ago on Puentevella’s invitation. Pangilinan was in Bacolod to witness Game 1 of the recent PBA Philippine Cup finals between Talk ‘N’ Text and San Miguel Beer.

“It’s a national effort,” said Puentevella. “PLDT will sit down with Gov. (Alfredo) Maranon’s staff to discuss coordination points. If only PAGCOR remits what it is supposed to by law to the PSC, there shouldn’t be a problem raising the funds.”

Puentevella said the PSC Act of 1990 mandates PAGCOR to remit five percent of its gross income to the PSC but during President Ramos’ administration, the contribution was slashed in half. The remittance never went back to the original five percent during the terms of Presidents Estrada and Arroyo.

“In fairness, President Ramos made up for the cut-back by providing funds over and above the five percent when the national government was asked to support our international competitions,” said Puentevella. “If PAGCOR follows the law, the PSC should be getting about P1.2 billion a year instead of only P600 million. With what it’s supposed to get, the PSC could easily allocate about P100 million to refurbish Panaad. If countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar can build national football stadiums up to AFC standards, why can’t we?”

Puentevella said Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri is batting for Panaad’s upgrade.

“The idea is not to build from scratch,” said Puentevella. “Let’s look at the available stadiums. We’ve checked out the Rizal Memorial, University of Makati, PhilSports, Iloilo and Cebu and none can compare with Panaad which has the potential to increase viewing capacity to 32,000. Panaad also has adequate lighting and parking space.”

Puentevella said Panaad now has a seating capacity of close to 16,000. A P200 million budget could build another roofed grandstand on the opposite side of the field and seats behind the two goals to increase the capacity to 32,000.

According to Zubiri, FIFA has 10 prerequisites for a stadium to be considered for international matches – pre-construction decisions such as location, field orientation and multi-purpose facilities, safety, parking, playing area, players and match officials – dressing rooms, media rooms, showers, spectators, hospitality, media, lighting and power supply and communication and additional areas.

The Philippines failed to get a go-signal from the AFF to host a Suzuki Cup semifinal game last year because no venue could meet international standards.

“Let’s hope we never get embarrassed again,” said Puentevella. “The Negros Occidental chapter of the United Architects Association of the Philippines has made an initial survey and came up with a P200 million budget to refurbish Panaad.”

Zubiri is expected to attend the Azkals’ game tonight.

“I just could not believe that a country like ours has no accredited facility to host an international football game,” said Zubiri in a recent privilege speech at the Senate. “It seems that we are so predisposed to the fact that our football teams cannot win and therefore, we need not prepare our stadiums for championships. That’s a shame as our smaller neighbors like Cambodia and Laos have accredited facilities and we do not have any.”