Abundio Benitez, principal of Tingub National High School in Mandaue City demonstrates how a robber tied him inside their quarters at the Langtad Elementary School in the City of Naga. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)
The City of Naga’s first hosting of the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (CVIRAA) meet didn’t go the way city officials planned it to be.
This after several delegates from Mandaue City were robbed at their own quarters at the Langtad Elementary School at dawn yesterday.
Abundio Benitez, principal of Tingub National High School; Miriam Morata, principal of Leonard Wood Elementary School; and Joel Duralza, master teacher of the Opao Elementary School, were robbed by an unidentified man who they thought was part of their delegation. The robber fled with a tablet worth P11,000.
Benitez, 53, and kitchen staff for the Mandaue team, reported the robbery to the police yesterday.
Benitez said he woke up at 3 a.m. to prepare breakfast for the team when he chanced upon the robber inside the room. The robber poked a knife at Benitez, told him to lie down, tied his legs with shoelaces, and took his tablet. The robber fled after an athlete screamed upon seeing the thief going through the athletes’ bags.
Police said they were investigating the robbery and are assigning more policemen to secure the athletes housed in nine schools in the city.
Naga City Mayor Valdemar Chiong apologized to the Mandaue City delegation in yesterday’s official opening ceremonies of the annual multi-sporting meet held at the newly built Naga City Sports Complex.
“It is truly a dream come true for us Nagahanons to host this prestigious event because we want to strive for excellence not just academically but also in sports. Unfortunately, a bad thing happened earlier. For that, I would like to extend my apologies to the Mandaue City delegates for the incident. We assure everyone here that we will secure the schools that served as the billeting area for the delegates and we also assure that we are already conducting follow-up operations regarding the incident,” Chiong said in his speech.
Roger Paler, Mandaue City Public Relations Officer (PRO), told Cebu Daily News they will also tighten security after hearing rumors about the presence of a drug den at the back of the school where the team is staying at.
Despite the unfortunate incident, the week-long competition featuring 5,000 athletes from 13 divisions of Central Visayas will get underway starting today.
Main action will be at the Naga City Sports Complex while the swimming event will be held at the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) since Naga City’s Olympic-sized swimming pool is still under construction.
In yesterday’s opening ceremonies, John Clyde Laquio, City of Naga’s Palarong Pambansa silver medalist in lawn tennis, lit the cauldron of CVIRAA while lawyer Fiel Almendra, the OIC of the DepEd Region VII, lit the torch. Vince Anton Louise Alforque, another City of Naga medalist for lawn tennis in the Milo Little Olympics, headed the oath of amateurism while Victor Yntig, the chief administrator of DepEd Region VII, led the oath of officials.
Around 17 sporting events will be competed in the meet. Winners here will make up the Central Visayas team that will see action in the Palarong Pambansa. Team Cebu City Ninos are the defending champions for 23 straight years.