TAGUM CITY, Davao del Norte -- The long wait may finally be over for Davao to host the Palarong Pambansa.
Davao del Norte, the country's biggest banana exporting province, is now poised to become the country's new sports capital of the South. And that's no bananas.
Davao del Norte Governor Rodolfo del Rosario formally laid down the groundwork for the province's reinvigorated thrust towards positioning itself as a major sports destination in the country.
Del Rosario recently made three major bold steps towards achieving that goal. First, he appointed his son, former Vice Governor and true-blue sportsman Anthon del Rosario to head the province's sports front office. Second, program the reconstruction of the fire-razed old sports complex into a spanking new state-of-the-art facility. And third, conduct a province-wide consultative sports summit to redirect the policies and programs on sports.
All these are geared towards an immediate goal-host the 2010 Palarong Pambansa, which is the country's national biggest school-based sports competition.
Davao City and other major provinces in the Davao region has been eyed as possible host of the annual national sports conclave, but due to the unavailability of venue, the region has been passed up in past biddings.
In contrast, Southern Mindanao neighbors Koronadal City, Sarangani Province and General Santos City have all hosted the Palarong Pambansa, the former having hosted the meet in 1995 and in 2006.
The new sports complex project will be commenced soon in Barangay Mankilam across the province's Government Center, where the old sports complex once stood until it was razed by fire in March 2003.
"We expect this project to be completed by 2010," del Rosario said.
The younger Del Rosario, who owned the Davao Eagles franchise in the now-defunct MBA, is now laying the cornerstones of the province's sports program that will lead to possible hosting of other major sports events like the revived Mindanao Friendship Games and the DAVRAA, or even national competitions conducted by the National Sports Associations.
Del Rosario has scheduled, in cooperation with the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Sports Institute, the first ever Davao del Norte Sports Summit in April 3-4 with some 600 participants expected. The bulk of these delegates will come from the barangays, the public schools, and the youth sector.
"They are our frontliners. We have to strengthen our ranks first. We need to achieve a common bond and a common goal, and this we hope to achieve through the Summit," Del Rosario said.
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William "Butch" Ramirez has thrown his support to the Summit and will be sending the country's topnotch resource speakers on various subject matters including formulation of grassroots sports development and sports for all programs.
Del Rosario said he expects the barangays to formulate their own sports programs anchored on their chosen focus sport.
"We will identify our focus sports and specialize in these fields," said Del Rosario.
Davao del Norte is noted for producing potential national members in boxing, karatedo, swimming and taekwondo, who have earned prominence in the Palarong Pambansa and other national youth competitions. It placed 9th among 81 provinces in the recent Philippine Olympic Festival in Manila.
