Officials from the CCSC, DepEd Cebu City, DepEd Region 7, and the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu do an ocular inspection of the Ateneo de Cebu’s field and track oval in Mandaue City for the Palarong Pambansa clustering meet next week. | Photo from Adolf Aguilar
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City’s capability to host Palarong Pambansa next year will be tested as it hosts the Palarong Pambansa’s first Pre-Qualifying Cluster Meet slated on June 14, 2023 in various venues in Cebu City and Mandaue City.
More than 1,300 athletes from four regions will strut their wares in the three-day multi-sporting meet in various venues in Cebu City and in Mandaue City.
John Pages, Cebu City Sports Commission (CCSC) chairman, in partnership with the Department of Education Region 7 (DepEd-7) and the Cebu City office are ramping up their preparations for next week’s clustering meet which is a newly established qualifying tournament for the Palarong Pambansa in July in Marikina City.
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1,300 athletes
In an interview with CDN Digital, Pages said that there would be over 1,300 athletes competing in eight team sports where only the top two regions would qualify for the Marikina Palarong Pambansa.
“It’s absolutely our chance to see our capability of hosting the Palarong Pambansa and also, the Palarong Pambansa secretariat will be here to observe,” said Pages.
“Right immediately after the games, the Palaro technical committee, will be inspecting the venues from June 18 to 20, (which is) part of the Palarong Pambansa bid. We submitted our formal bid to Manila last May 26, to DepEd central office. Our next step is the technical inspection, composed of DepEd and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) officials. They will be inspecting our venues and billeting quarters,” he said.
Eight sports events
There will be eight sports events to compete in the three-day clustering meet. These are volleyball, softball, basketball, sepak takraw, futsal, baseball, softball, and football.
The opening ceremony and the volleyball and softball competitions will be held at the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USP-F).
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Sports venues in Cebu City, Mandaue
Meanwhile, the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC) in Mandaue City will host three sports basketball, sepak takraw, and futsal.
On the other hand, the University of San Carlos (USC) will host the baseball competition, while Labangon Elementary School for softball elementary division, and the Don Bosco Technical College (DBTC) will host football.
“This is the first time the Palarong Pambansa organized this kind of qualifying tournament. The main purpose is to reduce the total number of participants in the main palarong pambansa, partly an offshoot of the pandemic. Only the top two teams per cluster will proceed in Marikina” added Pages.
He also revealed that they had been preparing for the clustering meet for a long time and had their final coordination meeting last Wednesday with DepEd -7.
Pages said that first to arrive were athletes from Iloilo and they would be billeted in a public school within Cebu City, so would those athletes from other regions.