2019 SEA Games cauldron

The 2019 Southeast Asian Games cauldron is a structure at the New Clark City Athletic Stadium in Capas, Tarlac, Philippines and was made for the 30th Southeast Asian Games with National Artist Francisco Mañosa responsible for the design. It was lit for the Opening Ceremony of the regional games which was held at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.

The 2019 Southeast Asian Games cauldron including its backdrop and podium was designed by Mañosa & Co. Inc. (MCI) of Filipino architect and National ArtistFrancisco Mañosa. Mañosa himself was involved in the design process despite him already in poor health and in early stages of dementia when his family firm was approached by the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) in January 2019 to design a cauldron for the games. Despite unable to draw by that time, Mañosa was able to give direction regarding the design of the cauldron verbally. The architect viewed videos of Olympic cauldron on YouTube as part of the design process and concluded that the 2019 Southeast Asian Games cauldron "must be Filipino" and directed his firm to look into his original design for the unbuilt Centennial Tower which was inspired from the sulo, a traditional Filipino torch. MCI presented two other designs to the PHISGOC. PHISGOC selected the design which was made by Mañosa himself. MCI did not disclose which among the three proposals were made by Mañosa beforehand.^[1]

The cauldron's design consists of the following:^[1]

• Three main pillars which represents the Philippines' main island groupings; Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao
• 17 sub-pillars for the 17 regions of the country
• 11 segments in the tower and 11 steps on the podium for the 11 countries participating at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

The cauldron was originally planned to be 32 meters (105 ft) high so that the flame would be visible from inside the Athletics Stadium but the planned height was reduced to 12.5 meters (41 ft). The cauldron was elevated by a podium. A foreign company was responsible for cauldron the flame mechanism.^[1]

MCI supervisó la construcción del pebetero, asegurándose de que se respetara su diseño estructural. Se contrataron diferentes empresas para la construcción del podio, la fabricación de la torre y el propio pebetero. ^{[ 1 ]}

El Comité Organizador de los Juegos del Sudeste Asiático de Filipinas (PHISGOC) solicitó un presupuesto de ₱55,92 millones para el pebetero a la Comisión Deportiva de Filipinas , que administró el fondo de ₱6 mil millones proporcionado por el gobierno nacional para la organización de los Juegos del Sudeste Asiático de 2019. El desglose del presupuesto para el pebetero es el siguiente: ^{[ 2 ]}

• ₱4.4 millones – diseño
• ₱13,44 millones – construcción de cimientos
• ₱32 millones – construcción e instalación del propio caldero.
• ₱6 millones – pulseras identificativas

En los días previos a los Juegos del Sudeste Asiático de 2019 , la construcción del pebetero fue objeto de críticas debido a su costo. El senador Franklin Drilon lo llamó peyorativamente "kaldero" ( literalmente, " caldero de cocina", en filipino ) , cuestionando el costo de la estructura y afirmando que el dinero gastado podría haberse utilizado para construir 50 aulas. El presidente de la Cámara de Representantes, Alan Peter Cayetano , quien también preside el comité organizador de los juegos, defendió el pebetero como una "obra de arte invaluable" y señaló que el pebetero utilizado en los Juegos del Sudeste Asiático de 2015 en Singapur fue más caro, con un costo de 63 millones de pesos filipinos . ^{[ 3 ]} El presidente Rodrigo Duterte expresó su convicción de que no hubo corrupción involucrada en la construcción del pebetero. ^{[ 4 ]}

En septiembre de 2021, Cayetano afirma que el pebetero fue financiado íntegramente por el sector privado y añade que las acusaciones de corrupción relacionadas con el pebetero provocaron la retirada de algunos patrocinadores de los juegos. ^{[ 5 ]}

The cauldron was lit up for the opening ceremony of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue. A live video of the lighting was to be supposed to beamed at the indoor arena during the ceremony but a pre-recorded video of the act by boxers Manny Pacquiao and Nesthy Petecio was shown instead as a contingency against anticipated bad weather expected from the then-incoming onslaught of Typhoon Kammuri (Tisoy).^[6] The fire in the cauldron was extinguished after Salvador Medialdea declared the games closed during the closing ceremony of the games which was held at the New Clark City Sports Hub itself.^[7]