A LOCAL government official announced that the Joaquin Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex will undergo a major rehabilitation and upgrade this year.

Dr. Elmeir Apolinario, city disaster risk reduction and management officer, said they are rushing the clean-up activities at the sports complex as rehabilitation and upgrade works are targeted to commence by October.

Apolinario said the rehabilitation and upgrade works will cost P335 million, the funding of which will come from the P3.5 billion President Benigno Aquino III has allocated for the Zamboanga City Roadmap to Recovery and Reconstruction (Z3R) program.

He said the rehabilitation and upgrading of the different facilities at the sports complex will be simultaneously undertaken by 10 contractors.

Apolinario added that additional facilities like athletes quarters and other amenities will be also constructed inside the sports complex.

Most of the residents are in dismay upon seeing the present state of the sports complex since most of the facilities were destroyed after it was used as evacuation center.

The sports complex has served as the biggest evacuation center for the more than 100,000 people displaced when Moro rebels infiltrated the city in September 2013.

The 5.5 hectares sports complex has been cleared of Internally Displaced Persons last week.

The multi-use sports complex, named after the late Mayor Joaquin F. Enriquez Jr., was built and completed in time for the March 6, 1992 Palarong Pambansa.

The government spent over P64 million to build the sports complex, which boast of the latest synthetic rubberized track oval, only second in the world after one in Saudi Arabia.

 

sunstar.com.ph

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