Was Naga's P500-M coliseum fund political? Robredo lays out timeline

MANILA, Philippines - The P500-million national allocation for the rehabilitation of Naga City's Jesse M. Robredo Coliseum has drawn political questions months after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. released the funds, prompting Mayor Leni Robredo to lay out the project's origins and timetable.

Robredo said the request grew out of the city's need to turn the coliseum, originally built as an events venue, into a safer and more functional evacuation center as severe storms and flooding increasingly force families to shelter there.

"Because it was not originally built as an evacuation center, it does not provide the basic amenities that an evacuation center should have," Robredo said in a Facebook post on Monday, September 21.

The 12,000-seat coliseum has become Naga's largest evacuation center during typhoons and floods, but Robredo said it has limited space for tents, no communal kitchens and inadequate sleeping and storage areas for displaced families.