SANTA ANA, Cagayan — The Beach Volleyball Republic returns after a two-year hiatus with the first of two legs in a bubble set-up tomorrow at the famed resort town here.

A total of 25 teams – 14 in the women and 11 in the men’s division – are vying for the championship in the Oct. 22-25 competition which will start at 8 a.m.

The second and final leg will be played on October 28-31 at the same Santa Ana venue.

Charo Soriano, one of the BVR founders, expressed confidence that the restart will boost the sport as it tries to sustain the gains it achieved in the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019, where the men’s and women’s squads reached podium.

The BVR on Tour will be a part of the Philippine women’s and men’s teams’ preparation for the Asian Seniors Beach Volleyball Championship set on November 23-27 in Phuket, Thailand.

“Apart from sports really trying to come back, I think right now the message that we want to give out to the public, the majority, and the audience, the stakeholders of volleyball is that sports is a catalyst of hope,” said Soriano, who is also the Philippine National Volleyball Federation’s Beach Volleyball Chairperson.

“By doing this, it gives a lot of hope to our community, to be more sprecific, thethe sporting community. Because we want to be able to show them that there are things that we still can do and look forward to even during the pandemic,” she added.

This will be the fifth time – and the first since 2018 – that Santa Ana, Cagayan will host the BVR on Tour, which is sponsored by Puso Pilipinas, Smart Sports, Santa Ana LGU, Tuguegarao LGU, Cagayan Board Member Aj Ponce, Cagayan 1st District Rep. Junjun Nolasco, TikTok Phlippines, EVI Construction, Savepoint Plus, Xentro Mall, Toyota Tuguegarao, Ibuprofen Paracetamol ALAXAN FR and supported by the Philippine National Volleyball Federation.

Unlike in the previous editions, this will be held under strict health and safety protccols where members of the BVR delegation underwent RT-PCR test three days before entering the bubble and antigen test upon entry.

“A lot of us who are doing this, organizing this, have been sacrificing more than usual. To organize an event is already difficult in itself, what more, organizing an event during the pandemic. So everybody needs to give a little bit of something extra than usual. That for me, I think is such a beautiful thing,” said Soriano.

“To see people cooperating, participating, and really going the extra mile just to make this happen. Again it’s all for us to feel that semblance of hope that things can be normal again for everybody,” she added.

The women’s teams are Creamline, PLDT, TM, Biogenic, Eastern Communications, Toyota-Tuguegarao, Black Mamba Army, Sta. Lucia Lady Realtors, Boysen, Delimondo and Good Health-CDO.

Creamline, PLDT, ARMY-FSD Makati, DeliRush, Tuguegarao, EVI Construction and Negros Occidental Beach Volleyball Club comprise the men’s field.

The games will be streamed live on the Puso Pilipinas and Smart Sports Facebook pages and YouTube channels.