AFTER participating in the Palarong Pambansa 2024 sporting events in Cebu City in the coming months, athletes and visitors are invited to explore Cebu Province’s tourist spots with a specially organized Suroy-Suroy Sugbo tour package.
Vice President Sara Duterte, in an interview with the Cebu Provincial Government’s social media arm, said this is among the plans she initially discussed with Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia during their meeting on Friday, Feb. 2, 2024.
Duterte was in Cebu on Friday for the signing of the memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Cebu City Government for the hosting of the Palarong Pambansa or National Games 2024. Cebu City won the bid over Bacolod City and Antique Province to host the Palaro this year.
The Palarong Pambansa is the largest and most prestigious sports event for student-athletes in the country. The Department of Education (DepEd) organizes the Palarong Pambansa annually, rotating the hosting duties in different cities and provinces.
Duterte, the concurrent secretary of DepEd, said that after the Palarong Pambansa, she would invite the participants to join the Capitol-led tourism program, Suroy-Suroy Sugbo.
“Dugay nako kadungog anang [Suroy-Suroy Sugbo] no. Ang isa pud na sa mga ginatan-aw namo na activities para sa atong mga athletes karong Palarang Pambansa. Daghan kaayo ta’g athlete manganhi dinhi, apil na ilahang pamilya, para mo compete,” she said.
(I have heard about [Suroy- Suroy Sugbo] for quite some time now. It’s also one of the activities that we are looking forward to for our athletes in this Palarong Pambansa. Many athletes, including their families, are set to come here to participate and compete.)
She said she looks forward to pushing for the inclusion of the tourism program in the post-Palaro activities for the participants from the 17 regions in the country.
Suroy-Suroy Sugbo
Suroy-Suroy Sugbo is a tourism program by the Cebu Provincial Government that promotes local attractions and cultural heritage. Participants of the Suroy- Suroy Sugbo get to explore destinations, including historical sites, beaches, and local markets, to boost tourism, support businesses, and showcase Cebu’s cultural and natural resources.
The most recent edition of the tour was held last Jan. 23-25 and was designed to visit 14 towns and one city for the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo northern escapade. It drew more than 600 participants, the largest group since Capitol launched the tourism initiative in 2004.
Garcia said incorporating the tourism program into the national sporting event would be an excellent way to make the experience a sports-tourism venture for the participants.
“We can always (craft) a mini-Suroy-Suroy package for them. We can get the hotels and resorts to come up with discounted prices for their stay, so we could have a sports-tourism kind of event,” she said.
However, the potential towns and cities to be visited in the tourism program, as well as the pricing of the tour package, have not been discussed yet.
Over 12,000 athletes and coaches and an additional 25,000 family members of the participants are expected to converge in Cebu City for the Palarong Pambansa 2024.
Palaro in Cebu City
Garcia committed to helping Cebu City in holding the national sporting event here for the first time in 30 years. This marks Cebu City’s third time hosting the event, with the initial hosting in 1954 and the second in 1994.
Before visiting Garcia in the Capitol, Duterte went to Cebu City Hall on Friday morning to sign the MOA with Cebu City Mayor
Michael Rama for the hosting of the Palarong Pambansa 2024.
Following the signing, the Cebu City government announced in a press conference that it had set aside P200 million for the staging of the Palarong Pambansa.
The event’s schedule has yet to be finalized due to ongoing consultations on the school calendar. Based on the current school calendar, the Palarong Pambansa is initially scheduled for August.
Initially, there were expectations for the Palarong Pambansa to be held in July, following the precedent set by the 2023 games in Marikina, Metro Manila, which started in July.