BAGUIO CITY – A football stalwart in the city filed a complaint against an executive of the Burnham Park office for alleged rued behaviour in dealing with them relative to the use of the Melvin Jones grandstand for their regular activities.
In his letter dated 31 March 2016 addressed to Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan, Ariston Bocalan, Baguio football and footsal head coach, claimed that they started training at the Baguio Athletic Bowl when they first started their initiative to teach grassroots football and football to interested youngsters in the city and other parts of Benguet.
However, after sometime, Bocalan claimed they were allegedly reprimanded by Joseph Hermogeno, who is in charge of the Burnham Park office, to move out from the athletic bowl and train at the Melvin Jones football ground instead.
“Our team has been nurturing the grassroots football and footsal in the Cordillera. Through our private initiative, we have produced capable athletes who have been representing the city and the region in local and national competitions,” Bocalan stressed.
He noted that the first incident happened before the renovation of the athletic bowl as Hermogeno stated that they might ruin the maintenance of the city’s sports facility.
According to him, his team followed Hermogeno’s advise and continued their grassroots football and footsal program at the Melvin Jones football ground.
As a team, he revealed that they possess the necessary equipment that if necessary would be in safekeeping near the football grounds with the permission of the officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and they were allowed to keep their equipment at the PDEA office under the grandstand.
Ironically, Bocalan reported to the mayor that Hermogeno insisted that their team is not allowed to use the said space even if they were able to secure the permission of the PDEA office.
“His manner of speaking was rued and he was trying to impose that he has the position to decide on who can use the Melvin Jones football ground. In respect to Mr. Hermogeno’s order, we took out our equipment from the PDEA office. Our solution to aid our storage is to store it inside my van and we asked him if we can have free parking since we were not allowed to store it at the PDEA area but again, he even suggested that my players contribute for the payment of the parking fee near the field,”Boccalan stated.
According to him, another recent incident was that he ordered his guards in Melvin Jones to tell us that we are not allowed to use the field and we do not know another place to have our trainings.
For his players, Bocalan cited they are very disappointed because Hermogeno is trying to isolate football from the other sports and as for them, they are frustrated because they represent the city in football games outside the city.
Bocalan appealed to the city mayor to take the necessary action in order to put the rest the said issue and for Hermogeno to be watchful of his actuations which is contrary to the supposed behaviour of a public servant.
By Dexter A. See
