EVEN the 63rd Pambansa has not been spared from bad individuals.
The Marikina City police yesterday arrested four individuals pretending to be members of the media covering the games and broke into the billeting quarters of the athletes in a robbery attempt last Tuesday night.
The police refused to grant an interview yesterday, saying the case is under investigation.
Highly-reliable insiders said Marikina Mayor Marcy Teodoro will file charges against the suspects.
The suspects posed as “freelance photographers” of the Bicol Region based on photos of their falsified press identification cards obtained by Malaya-Business Insight.
“Schools have been alerted of the incident and tighter security measures have been put into place,” one of the insiders said on condition of anonymity. “Their media IDs were really dubious. Even a signature of a Department of Education official or Marikina LGU was missing on their fake IDs.”
Widely known as the Shoe Capital of the Philippines, Marikina is hosting the Palarong Pambansa for the first time. It hosted the 1980 Palarong Bagong Lipunan, with only the ASEAN School Games in 2014 as its notable hosting of a major sporting event.
Under the theme “Batang Malakas, Bansang Matatag,” the country’s premier joust for elementary and high school students has drawn 9,172 athletes, coaches, and officials from 17 regions.
