SECURITY is expected to be tight with President Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte attending the opening ceremony of the Palarong Pambansa at the newly-renovated Cebu City Sports Center today, Tuesday.
Close to 20,000 athletes and coaches from the country’s 17 regions will join the opening parade starting at 3:30 p.m. along Osmena Boulevard as they troop to the CCSC for the inaugural program set to start two hours later.
CCSC chief John Pages confirmed at a press briefing that Marcos and Duterte will grace the opening day together with acting Cebu City Mayor Raymund Alvin Garcia.
This is the second time the Queen City of the South will host the country’s premier meet for high school and elementary school athletes that goes full blast tomorrow in 34 sports and 44 venues.
DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas, the Palaro secretary general who was also in briefing, said he was satisfied with “the commitments made by the Cebu City government” after inspecting the facilities and venues that will be used for the competition.
Pages also assured media that the organizers had left no stone unturned in ensuring the smooth operation of the Palaro after conducting a dry run during the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association meet last week.
“Staging the CVRAA was a good experience and I can safely say that our venues are ready for the participating Palaro athletes,” said Pages, adding he is hoping the homecourt advantage of Central Visayas would boost their chances in the overall medal standings.
He said they had also set up contingency plans should there be bad weather for the duration of the competition.
Disciplines on tap are athletics, archery, arnis, badminton, baseball, 5×5 and 3×3 basketball, billiards, boxing, chess, dancesport, which is making its debut as a medal discipline; football, futsal, gymnastics, pencak silat, sepak takraw, softball, swimming, volleyball, wrestling, table tennis, lawn tennis, taekwondo and wushu.
Also to be held with the regular Palaro are the games for physically-challenged athletes in swimming, athletics, bocce and goal ball.
