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Monday, April 11, 2005
Soldiers keep watch on athletes
By JADE S. VIOLETA
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
ZAMBOANGA CITY – Athletes engrossed in practice with military personnel in full battle gear standing close by.
This is the sight that greets one in several private school campuses here as this city by the sea in the southern part of the country gets ready for the grand opening of the 2005 National Private Schools Athletic Association Games today at the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex.
The presence of the military and the police in every campus where the visitors are billeted, however, is just part of Prisaa-Zamboanga’s measures of ascertaining the safety of the athletes, coaches and officials of the visiting delegations due to terrorist threats.
But contrary to news reports of violence and kidnappings, the people of Zamboanga City in general and students in particular enjoy relative peace and quiet, busy in welcoming the visitors coming from 16 regional delegations from all over the country, who will compete in the multi-event competition, which will be ushered in with a grand opening ceremony starting 3 p.m. today.
Prisaa National Secretariat’s Laureano C. Santos told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday that the invited guests of honor in today’s activity, which will be ushered in with a parade by all the delegates from the Pettit Barracks going into the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex, are Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Peping Cojuangco and Philippine Sports Commission Commissioner Leon Montemayor.
PSC Chairman William Butch Ramirez, Santos said, will come over during the closing ceremonies.
The start of the hostilities of the 13 events will be tomorrow in separate venues.
Prisaa-7, composed of teams from Cebu and Negros Oriental will compete in all of the events except for the Mutya ng Prisaa and sepak takraw.
No representative
Prisaa-7 secretariat’s Bernard Ricablanca said in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu that Prisaa-7 will not be able to send a representative to the Mutya and a team to sepak takraw after Bohol failed to make it here due to undisclosed reasons.
Bohol earned the right to send representatives to both the Mutya and sepak takraw competitions after topping the Prisaa regional competitions held in Dumaguete City and in Bohol late last year.
Bohol was also supposed to send a representative to the vocal solo contest but due to its absence, Ricablanca said that will instead let Edward Encontro, a University of Cebu athletics bet, compete.
“We have been trying to contact them (Bohol) for almost two weeks prior to this but they never bothered to reply. Kay kung nag-ingon pa lang sila nga di sila modayon og anhi (If they had said they won’t be coming here), we could have just allowed any of the runners-up of the regional Mutya ng Prisaa pageant to represent Prisaa 7,” said Ricablanca.
Outside of this, though, Ricablanca said the Prisaa-7 delegation, composed mostly of athletes coming from Cebu City schools with reinforcements from Dumaguete City’s Silliman University, is ready for battle in the other events.
The events to be competed in the weeklong competition at the Joaquin F. Enriquez Memorial Sports Complex are athletics (Men/Women), baseball, basketball (M/W), lawn tennis (M/W), sepak takraw, swimming (M/W), softball (W) and volleyball (M/W).
Ateneo de Zamboanga University swill host badminton, taekwondo, Mutya ng Prisaa selection and the vocal solo competitions, while Pilar College and Claret High School will host table tennis and chess respectively.
Venues
Six other venues – the Zaec-IHK Open Court, Zam-boanga City Gymnasium, Wicas Covered Court, Sta. Maria field, Icas Covered Court and the Lim Bros. Badminton Court – are being readied as alternate venues.
Meanwhile, Santos also said that prior to the opening-day ceremony, a national sports solidarity meeting to be attended by representatives of the host city, the delegations and the media, will be held today at 8 a.m. followed by the meeting of the Prisaa Board of Trustees later in the day.
The last time Zamboanga hosted the National Prisaa Games in 1993. Prisaa national president Dr. Emmanuel Angeles of Angeles University said that the best and most-organized Prisaa national games was in 1993 when Prisaa-Zamboanga hosted the event.
Next year’s host will be Dagupan City.
(April 11, 2005 issue)
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