Bleacher Talk
May 10, 2015
Palaro 2015
The Palarong Pambansa 2015 will go down as one of Bleacher
Talk’s favorites as one of the better ones from a hosting point of view. Sure,
there will be the usual questions of officiating, biases and criticism over the
way the DEPED manages the games, but I prefer to stay out of that for now. I
just feel that it’s proper to commend the province of Davao del Norte, the city
of Tagum and all those involved for being gracious hosts of these games.
Tagum is an ideal venue for a Palarong Pambansa primarily
due to its infrastructure and united way of hosting. Travelling to Tagum even
by public transportation is smooth, hassle-free and a treat to the eyes. We’re
talking about four to six-lane highways assuring a smooth ride to and from
Tagum whether you’re coming from the Davao City area or from the north/CARAGA
region. And that’s hundreds of kilometers we’re talking about. Fellow
sportswriter Noel Villalfor, who’s here to watch his daughter play futsal, even
corrects me that the highways have eight, not six lanes. Did I hear eight? Just
imagine the SRP roads multiplied by over a hundred. That is the road network
that they have here. The irony of it all is that when the late Vice Governor
Greg Sanchez proposed the building of a brand new road network from the
northern tip of Cebu all the way to the south, he was branded as “nuts” or
“crazy.” “Wa sya ma lipong?” a politician reportedly asked. Well I have news
for you. What remains a dream in Cebu is reality in Mindanao. Travelers have
the luxury of cruising through these six (or eight) lane highways with a
pleasing all around view. These are the times when I wish my bike’s cc’s were
also multiplied (by four or five times) for a dream ride that has always remained
a dream for us Cebu road users.
And then you have the local governments working together to
ensure a gracious and warm hosting. All sports venues were repaired to be up to
par for each event. The Davao del Norte Sports Complex is a sprawling area that
includes a covered gym, a swimming pool with bleachers, a track oval with
bleachers and lights for night events, tennis courts, multi-purpose buildings,
and multi-purpose open fields that are used for archery and football. These fields
could also be converted to baseball fields. For the other venues, we’re not
even talking about maple floors or rubberized floorings here. They took care of
touching up the different barangay gyms to make these game-ready, including
re-paint jobs of gym floors. The workmanship of their barangay gyms is so much
better than those that we see in our midst. All these venues may not have been
at the level of first class facilities of the first world, but it was clear
that Tagum made sure that these wouldn’t embarrass the city. As an icing on the
cake, free bananas, fresh from the province’s banana plantations, were given to
both athletes and spectators at the different venues. And there were those who
ate more than one banana at different venues, including this writer.
Moving around Tagum is also very easy. The network of
tricycles and “single,” their term for habal-habal, makes it easy to move from
one venue to another. All the tricycle drivers and singles drivers with who we
chatted were courteous, polite and accommodating. Even the local carinderia
owners welcomed us warmly and proudly showed off their specialties. It seems as
if the entire Tagum was all-in in the hosting. There are welcome banners in
most, if not all the major establishments and everyone knows what’s going on. I
hope I’m not exaggerating but I’m pretty confident you’ll hear about similar
type of stories and comments from others. The only segment that wasn’t as
hospitable were those bugs who also “watched” the games at night. Nobody’s
perfect, right?
Tagum has proven that this is the type of city or town that
should host future Palaro events. There
may be talks about bringing the Palaro to Cebu, but we should give it a lot of
thought. While I’d like Cebu to enjoy an instant economic boom that a Palaro
provides, I don’t think we’re the ideal venue. The traffic and accessibility of
sports venues will be a major concern. We don’t even have a comprehensive
sports complex like they do in Tagum or like the one in Sta. Cruz, Laguna of
last year. If cities like Tagum and Sta. Cruz (Laguna) can set up sports
complexes for multi-sport events, why can’t we do the same in Cebu? Cebu is better
off hosting international events and setting the bar for events like these.
These are not as big and wide scale as a Palaro, but its impact and value are
ten times more.
Take a bow, Tagum and Davao del Norte. Hats off to
you and it’s our wish that all future editions of the Palaro adopt the same
hosting standard that you’ve set or raise it even more. You have proven that
even without five star hotels and high-tech or world-class sports facilities, a
Palaro can still be enjoyable and fun.
oOo
Time-out: The BEST Center basketball clinic
sponsored by Milo will be held May 11-16, 2015, at the SHS-Ateneo de Cebu Mango
Avenue Campus Gym. For details, check out the page “BEST Center Sports Cebu” in
Facebook.
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