From the Letters section of the Inquirer comes a 7-point argument offering UP Diliman as the ideal site for the 2003 South East Asian games which the Philippines will host.

The letter writer wants to avoid the white elephants resulting from the Palarong Pambansa a couple of years back. We should therefore find a place which already has the required infrastructure, or is at least near to several ready venues. He then volunteers the nearby schools' gymnasiums (gymnasia?), the Araneta Center, the Pasig Sports Complex. He has a sense of logistics, yes. If we are to depend on the university's resources alone, we might as well take the games someplace else. I can't imagine a swimming competition in the school's pool. Legend has it that the water is changed only every four years. The water is so murky you can't even see the bottom of the pool, and there are reptiles doing the backstroke with you. Which is why I never took up swimming and enrolled in contact sports. At least all judo requires is a room with a mat and your ability to fling people off the walls.

But let's play the devil's advocate. Isn't he a bit deluded as to the university's actual capability to support such a huge event as the SEA Games? Let's take this one by one:

There are enough dormitories in UP to accommodate 3,000 athletes within the campus. In addition to this, there is a health service (hospital) and medical and dental personnel, several canteens and eating places, a couple of banks, a post office and two telegram outlets. Security is not a problem because the campus is enclosed and there is an existing security force.

Evidently, this guy hasn't come within a two-thousand mile radius of any of UP's dorms. Residents have long complained of the leaking roofs. Two-person rooms are occupied by four people because that's all the university has to offer, and it's all the students can afford. Lodgings inside the campus aren't exactly offered for a song and a jig. They cost an appendage in the very least.

And do not get me started on the infirmary bit. It's a walk-in tomb with zombies for its attendants. If I were in pain and needed medical attention, I'd much rather endure the pain and the traffic and try to get me transported to a more competent hospital. In all the years I've been in UP and try to get medication for various ailments, all I was offered was an excuse slip and paracetamols.

I guess it'll be okay to give the athletes a different health regimen. If you have the penchant for eating paper or cardboard, go for a taste of CASAA's cuisine. Very tasty. Yum. If they want better food, the athletes can also try eating at the Chocolate Kiss or the other eating venues, but they will have to pay for it for themselves.

Let's not tackle the telegram thing and the mysterious case of the 28.8kbps modem connection at the Shopping Center, the Computer Center and the library. As for the security, I would think twice or two million more times about it before I'll put 3,000 athletes in UP Diliman. I was in a first floor Palma Hall classroom when a student was gunned down in the AS Steps at close range. Our class thought the shots were part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, then when somebody shouted for help and several more shots rang out, we immediately ducked and clung to the floor and hid under chairs. Is that security? Armed men freely enter and roam student-populated areas and shoot a student and we're talking about security? You cannot even walk along the roads any more without fear of getting kidnapped or raped.

Media coverage will not be a problem since most of the television stations are located in Quezon City.

Okay, if he says so. I have no doubt that we have some of the most reliable broadcast reporters around. And some of our reputed sports commentators walk around with coffee machines offering people instant coffee passing itself off as brewed.

Many shopping centers are found in Quezon City and, as part of the culture of international sports competition, there must be an abundance of nightlife services. Quezon City can rival those in Clark or anywhere in the Philippines.

What do malls and gimik places have to do with the culture of international sports competition? Is that all we have to offer now? Shoebox structures with plenty of uncirculated air and l'eau de toilette. The athletes can have a hand singing videoke and get insulted by the bar's host. And yeah, maybe they can jog along Quezon Ave and Timog. They're not that bad and go for as low as a hundred on a slow night. Rivals Clark eh?

Investments on sports facilities and equipment in UP will give this premier academic institution the resources it needs to become a Games Village for future international competition. It will likewise contribute to the quest of the state university for world-class status by the time it observes its centennial year in 2008.

Finally, if you still haven't caught on to what I'm trying to point out. Yes, the university needs support and investment not just in sports equipment. It badly needs a rehaul for its dormitories, its facilities, its education program. It's not so much for gaining world class status but to at least retain or improve where it's currently standing: in a muck of mud. Each year when the Asiaweek rankings on the continent's best schools come out and UP slips further down without fail, they all blame the dwindling resources. UP swings by on its reputation where the students are brilliant, socially-aware, etc. I used to believe the myth myself. But now, I'm not so convinced anymore. We have to be merciless in order to have an accurate assessment of a situation. Several decades ago, the "UP is the premier state university" may be a true supposition. Maybe, but each generation becomes a shade paler that the one before it. Students and alumni delight on those old Ateneo-La Salle-UP-Ama jokes, but soon we may find ourselves the butt of it if don't do anything about it.