Cebu City, Cebu Province to welcome PNG guests, show off competitiveness
Hosts Cebu City and Cebu Province will be rolling out the red carpet to welcome 94 other delegations and let them experience the warmth of Cebuano hospitality during the week-long Philippine National Games (PNG) that will be held in various venues in Cebu from May 19 to 25.
But when the competition starts, expect the local bets to fight tooth-and-nail against the visiting teams in each of the 19 sporting events that will be featured in this multi-sporting meet organized by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and serves as one of the qualifiers for the national team.
“We are the hosts, we want them to feel welcomed in Cebu,” said Cebu City Sports Commission chairman Edward Hayco during the launching of the meet yesterday at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC). “But we also want to beat them.”
The launching was also attended by PSC commissioner Ramon “El Presidente” Fernandez, who is the overall chairman for the PNG, Cebu Provincial Sports Commission (CPSC) executive director Atty. Ramil Abing, PSC PNG head secretariat Annie Ruiz and PSC Visayas’ Nonie Lopez.
According to Abing, they are also gearing for a torrid competition against the best athletes in the country saying that they have also selected the best athletes available in the Cebu province.
“We are very positive to win gold medals because these athletes that we have, are carefully selected and we are hoping that we can pull off great performances,” said Abing.
The Cebu City Niños will bank on their strengths in dancesports, archery, weightlifting and table tennis. The Cebu province will rely on its boxers, arnisadors and men’s volleyball squad composed of veteran Cesafi players, who just dominated the men’s open division of the Cebu City Mayor’s Cup.
The Niños will field in 400 athletes in all 19 events while Cebu province will pit 220 in 13 sporting events.
“This is the elite of the elite, the cream of the crop athletes in our country, national team members will represent their LGU’s and we envision that PNG to become the Philippine Olympics,” said Fernandez.
Earlier yesterday, Fernandez and Cebu Provincial Gov. Hilario Davide III signed a memorandum of agreement to formally forge their partnership for the PNG.
Out-of-town events such as duathlon and triathlon which will be held in Tabuelan, northwest Cebu, cycling events in Danao City and women’s division of the lawn tennis in Naga City, will all be hosted by the Cebu province..
Fernandez said they plan to make PNG into a biennial event to align it with the Southeast Asian Games and also to make it more prestigious so that a lot of athletes will look forward to it.
The opening ceremonies will be on Saturday at the CCSC, which is the main hub for the event. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will be the guest of honor along with Davide, PSC chairman William “Butch” Ramirez and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.