Bemedalled shuttlers lament lack of support from Mandaue

Sta. Cruz, Laguna— The way this team performs in national competitions, it seems it is getting enough support from the local government. But it isn’t. The elementary badminton team of Central Visayas, composed of players from Banilad Elementary School in Mandaue City, once again delivered when it ruled the Team Tie Competion in the ongoing 2014 Palarong Pambansa here. It was the third straight year that the team won the contest.

Eduardo Estoconing, the team’s co-coach, said his players continue to perform at a high level despite allegedly not getting the support from the Mandaue Sports Commission.

“We’ve been winning gold medals in the Palaro since 2006. But all those times, we didn’t get any support from the sports commission despite our repeated pleadings,” Estoconing said.

Estoconing claimed that the team has asked for financial support from the sports commission for their campaign in last January’s Batang Pinoy in Bacolod City. “Initially, they agreed to support us but when we followed up our request we were told to just look for sponsors,” Estoconing said. NO INCENTIVE Estoconing added that Gaga Mendoza, executive director of Mandaue’s sports commission, even announced in a press conference that the city will give P5,000 as cash incentive for every medal won in Batang Pinoy. “We won two golds but we haven’t received the promised incentive.

We were instead told to try approaching the city council,” Estoconing said. Estoconing said he had asked the sports commission to submit a letter to the Department of Education (DepEd) asking for an special arrangement, where the athletes will not be marked absent in case they have to attend practices. The commission allegedly did not act on the request. “The sports commission should treat all the sports fairly.

What is happening now is that Mendoza is favoring the contact sports,” said Patrick Estoconing, son of Eduardo and the team’s trainer. Patrick said the sports commission could not even provide them with shuttlecocks and other equipment for practices. “Our players chose to play with private individuals so they could play with free shuttlecocks.” PRIVATE SPONSORS Eduardo and his co-coach Alma Flores would shell out personal money just to sustain the team’s training and to keep their grassroots program going, Patrick said. “Luckily, there are private individuals like Benny Que and Jimmy Wu and the council of barangay Banilad council are giving us the needed support.” A

fter the Palaro, the team will compete in the Batang Pinoy at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila but they won’t be representing Mandaue. “We will compete under Cebu Province, which is willing to support us. We have also tried competing under Cebu City. It is ironic that we get support from others and not from our own city,” Patrick said.