No white elephant, just a black lie
From out of the blue, former president Noynoy Aquino has come out swinging at the projected P10-billion final tab for the New Clark City Sports Complex the Duterte government is building in Tarlac and where the Philippines will host the 30th edition of the Southeast Asian Games beginning November 30.
Aquino, who when not "noynoying" during his term spent time embarking on K to 12, Mamasapano, Dengvaxia, the Luneta bus hostage rescue, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar "warship" interdiction of Chinese fishing boats, and other disastrous misadventures, is as always being a hypocrite. As Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano correctly remembers, Aquino spent the same amount for hosting the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit.
The difference between the two P10 billion endeavors is that after Aquino spent his P10 billion for the 2015 APEC Summit, the Philippines got nothing to show for the huge expense. On the other hand, after Duterte spends his P10 billion to host the 30th SEAG, the Philippines will be left with an ultra-modern sports facility in an emerging new center of activity away from the squeeze of Metro Manila.
Characteristically, Aquino was joined by critics who, like him, see wrong in things only because they happened to be done, said, or thought of by Duterte. They are sworn to never give Duterte a chance. They have never gotten over the effrontery of a "probinsyano" challenging and soundly beating the ruling oligarchy.
In their desire to embarrass Duterte in front of the region whose athletes will be coming together in this country for no other reason than to compete in athletic solidarity, they have taken to employing terminologies that, by their sound, evoke scandal and controversy, but which, when checked against the facts on the ground, are really way off the malicious intent of their use and utterance.
For example, some have taken to calling the New Clark City Sports Complex an emerging white elephant. How can the facility be a white elephant when, in a matter of days, it will be hosting the biggest biennial sporting event in Southeast Asia? Unless something terribly dire happens to forestall or cancel altogether the hosting for which the facility is being built, then it shall have served its purpose after the meet.
And there is absolutely no way then you can call it a white elephant. A white elephant is something huge and expensive that never gets around to serving the purpose for which it was acquired or built. A fine example of a white elephant would be the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which never for a moment got around to start churning out a single watt of power.
If the New Clark City Sports Complex gets to host the 30th SEAG, and there is no reason why it shouldn't or couldn't, unless of course God intervenes, then there is no way you can call it a white elephant, not even if it hosts no other activity after that. Hosting the 30th SEAG is why it was built. If it does that, it shall have served its purpose. Everything else after that is a bonus. If no one avails of the bonus, don't blame the facility.
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