PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is expected to grace the Philippine National Games (PNG), on May 19 to 26 in several venues in Cebu City and Cebu Province.
The Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) regional director for Visayas, Nonnie Lopez, relayed the information to SunStar Cebu in an interview yesterday.
“I think it’s 90 percent that the president will be here. The PSG (Presidential Security Group) was here for an ocular inspection and we also had a meeting with them,” said Lopez.
He said that it’s not yet sure if Duterte will be at the opening ceremony, during the competition or at the closing ceremonies of the multi-sporting meet.
“We can never be sure until he’s here. But we are doing our preparation if he comes here. He was officially invited by us and I think he has other meetings also in Cebu during that week,” he said.
The national sporting meet, which is a qualifying event for athletes aspiring to be part of the national team, has attracted thousands of athletes from 87 cities and 39 provinces.
The organizers are expecting to gather more than 5,000 athletes for 22 sporting events. The LGU-based competition will give multi-million cash rewards to the top five teams.
Some members of the national team in various sports will also be playing for their home cities or provinces in the event.
On the other hand, the co-host Cebu Province is allocating a total of P4 million for PNG.
Atty. Ramil Abing, the executive director of Cebu Provincial Sports Commission (CPSC), said that they’re allocating P2 million as a co-host and another P2 million for the Cebu Province athletes.
“We have coordinated with the PSC, the national sports associations and the tournament managers. We are also on the lookout for the billeting schools for the athletes,” he said.
Cebu Province will be the host for the MTB competition, cycling, archery, triathlon, sepak takraw, men’s lawn tennis and weightlifting. Lapu-Lapu City will hold softball.
Cebu City will host arnis, athletics, badminton, boxing, chess, dancesports, judo, karatedo, women’s lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball. (RSC)