P100-M Palarong Pambansa opens

PUERTO PRINCESA—The host city is set to take its best foot forward as it prepare its biggest sporting endeavor in line with living up to its goal of being the sports tourism capital of the country. The city scattered close to P100 million for the hosting of the Palarong Pambansa, which opens today at the Ramon V. Mitra Sports Complex, with thousands of high school and elementary athletes from 17 regions all over the country expected to attend. The city alone shelled out P60 million that was directed for renovations in the event that is slated as sports in Urban Forest with the sports complex located in the forest hills of Puerto Princesa. The bulk of this went to the improvement of the rubberized tracks of the complex’s oval. “We spent P17 million to strip off the tracks and change it with the high-quality and imported ones," said the City Press Information Officer Alroben Goh. Renovation Goh added that P20 million went to the renovation and refurbishing of the existing venues, most of which were used during Batang Pinoy in early 2000, while the rest of the allocation went to the improvement of the billeting venues for the participants. Meanwhile, the organizers encountered the same problems that plague every other multi-event meet. “We get complaints like the water source. They say it’s too weak, but we remain positive about it. There is water, it’s just weak," said Goh adding that they also sent water trucks to add to the water source of the athletes. 17 events The Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa), has come in full force with 600 delegates competing in 17 different sporting events. The delegation, made mostly of players from Cebu, arrived in Palawan early this week for the registration and screening. They have stayed in Palawan for six days already but it is six days put to good use as they did not waste a single time, spending every waking moment preparing for their respective bids. Tennis bets Bernardine Niño Siso and sister Sallydine, even took advantage of their being in Palawan and to prepare themselves more, they took part in the Prince competition that was being staged this week and joins the other Cebuanos jogging daily. Niño, who will represent the region in the secondary boys division, topped the competition in his age group, while Sallydine finished runner up. Aside from tennis, the events that will be in the Palaro are archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, baseball, boxing, chess, football, gymnastics, sepak takraw, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis and volleyball. - Sun.Star Cebu