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BY CAROLYN JANE ABELLO
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February 7, 2018
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ILOILO City – An emotional Councilor Jeffrey Ganzon sought to delay the demolition of the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand which he said had historical significance.
According to Ganzon, the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand was a concrete memorial to the Iloilo City Freedom Law or Republic Act 1209 that his father – the late senator, congressman and city mayor Rodolfo Ganzon – authored in 1955 empowering the people of Iloilo City to elect their own leaders.
Prior to the law’s enactment, officials of Iloilo city were appointed by the President.
Ganzon shed tears while delivering a privilege speech yesterday at the session of the Sangguniang Panlungsod. He sought to ensure that the memory of his father would be perpetuated even if the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand would be demolished and a new and bigger one would be built a few meters way – on a 2,600-square meter property of Panay Railways Inc. on Muelle Loney Street which the city government purchased at P32 million.
The new grandstand will have a capacity of some 3,000 people, almost double the size of the existing structure. It will also have office spaces. Vendors will be provided spaces.
The bigger grandstand has a budget of P50 million.
In place of the demolished grandstand, Sunburst Park would be revived. Over 50 years ago, the park gave way to the construction of the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand.
Ganzon suggested that the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand be demolished only after the new one had been completed.
“Basi indi nila mahingagaw ang construction, ti kundi wala ‘ta grandstand,” he said.
Ganzon then pressed that the new grandstand should still be called the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand.
He also requested that a plaque bearing his father’s name be put on the new grandstand.
The councilor admitted he skipped the city government’s flag-raising ceremony on Monday, Feb. 5, at the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand because he was already feeling bad about the structure’s impending demolition.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority of the Department of Tourism and the Bureau of Customs would be teeming up for Sunburst Park’s revival.
Sunburst Park was named in honor of the American 40th Infantry Division of the same nickname that liberated Iloilo City from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.
Ganzon wondered if there really is a need to revive Sunburst Park.
“Kun kinhangalan ta plaza, kalapit sang Plaza Libertad, wala gani 150 meters away from the Iloilo Freedom Grandstand,” he said./PN
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