LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Yap underscored that the improvement of the Wangal Sports Complex into an international-standard sports facility will be the province’s gateway to the desired robust development in the coming years.
Yap took time out from his hectic schedule in Metro Manila to attend to equally important engagements in the province Tuesday and shared his insights on the need to pursue the implementation of the already funded development projects to jumpstart growth and development in the countryside.
For this year, the lawmaker source P165 million from the public works department some for the continued upgrading of the Wangal Sports Complex, aside from the P25 million from the same agency for the improvement of the covered court to comply with existing standards to allow the province to be able to host local, regional, national and international sports competitions.
“We want Benguet to become a first-class province through the implementation of already funded big-ticket projects. We do not want our province to be left out that is why we are working hard to make the appropriate representations with concerned government agencies to fund identified priority development projects in the different parts of the province to speed up the realization of rural development,” Congressman Yap stressed.
Initially, the funds for the upgrading of the sports complex will be used to rubberize the track oval, improve the track and field playing venues, and upgrade the bleachers, while the funds for the improvement of the covered court will be used to install a state-of-the-art wooden flooring, fiber glass goals, electronic scoreboard and the improvement of the bleachers.
According to him, Benguet deserves to have an independent identity thus efforts are now being done to aggressively promote the province as another premier tourist destination in the north so that foreign and domestic tourists can be enticed to visit the province once the country will go to the new normal.
Aside from being a tourist haven, Congressman Yap pointed out that Benguet will also be a premier sports destination because of the presence of the upgraded Wangal Sports Complex where organizers of future competitions will be considering Benguet as host primarily due to the presence of sports facilities that are compliant with international standards.
The proposed upgrading of the Wangal Sports Complex was bid out by the public works department and that the award of the project to the declared complying and responsive contractor is being awaited so that the project implementer could already start implementing the programmed works inside the facility to ensure its readiness for various sports competitions once the prevailing pandemic situation will normalize. By HENT
