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Our good leaders at City Hall have done it again, that is placing a good part of the city – this time the Athletic Bowl – in private hands, no less than to a group of Korean businessmen this time. 

The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) signed between the Honorable City Mayor Reinaldo Bautista, Jr and a Korean by the name of An Hu Yul for a 25-year lease of the 7-hectare Athletic Bowl for a measly rental of 100,000 pesos a month and duly endorsed by our equally honorable councilors through Council Resolution 515-2009 explains a lot why this country is going to the dogs. 

Perhaps our good city officials were feeling like Santa Claus when they decided last December to give a gift to this Korean in the form of a lease over the city’s Athletic Bowl. No public hearing, no public consultation over an act that is grossly disadvantageous to the city and its citizens. 

Never mind that our good city officials violated a law, Executive Order No. 695 to be exact (as some of them later realized) that they “cannot encumber, mortgage or alienate” any part of Burnham Park, the Athletic Bowl included. 
What has gotten over them during the Christmas season that they suffered from a collective amnesia about good governance, about transparency and accountability? Has the coming election season anything to do with this collective blunder being committed by our good city officials? 
Have they forgotten about our sad experience with the notorious Jadewell Parking system – another privatization scheme that was rejected resoundingly by the people of Baguio?  
Or, have they selectively picked some lessons from that experience and applied it to the Athletic Bowl MoA? One lesson from the Jadewell Parking experience says that you can push through a privatization project that is disadvantageous to the government and the people and get away with it for some years, at least.
 
Another lesson says: “Baguio electorate have short memories. So, you can engage in any graft and corruption. Just make sure the money involved is huge enough that will pave the way for your re-election next time around.” 
Despite all the tempation to the contrary, we still believe our honorable city officials were not engaged in anything anomalous with regards to the signing and endorsement of the MoA over the Athletic Bowl. We still believe that they had the best interest of the City and its people when they decided to hand-over the Athletic Bowl to a Korean businessman for a 25-year lease. 

We are not sure, though, that the rest of their constituency feels the same. Anyway, they have short memories. So, no problem.# nordis.net