CEBU CITY’S hosting of the Philippine National Games (PNG) from May 19 to 26 has been sealed with the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement yesterday between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) commissioner Ramon “El Presidente” Fernandez at the Office of the Mayor inside the Cebu City Hall.
Also present during the signing was Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) chairman Edward Hayco.
Co-hosting the multi-sporting event is the Cebu Province with archery and cycling to be held in the city of Danao, arnis and tennis in the City of Naga and triathlon and road bike race in Tabuelan.
The rest of the sporting events — athletics, badminton, boxing, chess, dancesport, judo, karatedo, sepak takraw, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball and weightlifting will be held in various venues in Cebu City. Gymnastics and rugby football will be held in Manila for lack of facilities here.
In exchange for hosting the event, Fernandez said that all equipment that will be used in the holding of the games in Cebu City will be left to the CCSC. And, this goes the same to the other venues outside Cebu City, said Fernandez.
Aside from that, the PSC board has also approved the donation of P50 million to Cebu City to help refurbish and build new sporting facilities, which Fernandez hopes will help address the lack of an Olympic-standard gymnastics facility in Cebu.
According to Fernandez, Osmeña has been very supportive of sports in general, suggesting areas where the PSC donation should be used.
“He sees the importance of a sports program for the kids, not just for the students but also for out of school youth,” said Fernandez.
Fernandez is also hoping that Cebu City would be able to help him in putting up a table tennis facility, which will be called the Philippine China Table Tennis Training Center, by providing the land, probably about 1,000 square meters.
The facility is a project of Stephen Techico, who works with the Table Tennis Association of the Philippines.
Fernandez has suggested to put up the facility here in Cebu City as it is accessible to both Luzon and Mindanao being situated in the middle.