Cebu City councilor Young doesn’t want Niños to compete in CVIRAA, Palaro unless…
Cebu City councilor Joy Augustus Young is adamant on his stand not to send athletes from Cebu City to the 2018 Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) and the Palarong Pambansa unless the Department of Education (DepEd) Region VII guarantees a better treatment of the team that will represent Central Visayas.
Young, chairman of the city’s Committee on Education, gave the opening remarks in the opening ceremonies of the 27th Cebu City Olympics yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC).
In an interview with Cebu Daily News, Young said he will only allow Cebu City athletes to compete in the CVIRAA and Palarong Pambansa if DepEd Region VII gets rid of Education Support Services Division (ESSD) chief Dr. Luz Jandayan and Office of the Regional Director Juliet Jeruta, whom he accused of mismanaging the Region 7 delegation in the Palarong Pambansa last April in San Jose, Antique.
“Dili na mi moapil,” Young said. (We won’t join anymore). “Cebu City Olympics ra mi kutob. Whatever they will do, bahala na sila. Dili mi mo apil until si Jandayan (Luz) ug si Jeruta (Juliet) naa pa dinha.” (We will only compete up to the Cebu City Olympics. Whatever they will do, leave it to them. We won’t compete until Jandayan and Jeruta are still there.)
The Cebu City Olympics is the qualifying meet for the Cebu City Niños team that will compete in the CVIRAA. Winners in the CVIRAA, meanwhile, will represent Central Visayas in the Palarong Pambansa.
Young said DepEd officials didn’t take good care of the athletes in the past two editions of the Palarong Pambansa.
“How can they guarantee they will handle the kids from Cebu City well? The best example was earlier this year in the Palarong Pambansa in San Jose, Antique and also last year in Albay. They didn’t take good care of the athletes. They left our delegation and went home first. They are aware of this because I scolded them about this.”
For Young, the welfare of the athletes is of utmost importance in multi-sporting meets like the Palaro.
“They don’t know how to organize and they don’t care. So why should we join that competition? We are just risking the kids’ safety and that can’t be. What we want is a guarantee that our athletes will be taken care of,” Young said.
Next year’s Palarong Pambansa will be held in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.
“That’s very far that’s why I doubt that we will be sending Cebu City athletes there. We don’t want to risk sending our athletes there with irresponsible people. That’s our concern,” Young added.
Meanwhile, the action in the Cebu City Olympics comes to full swing today at the Cebu City Sports Center and in other venues around the city.
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