Prepping for the IP Games in Bago
IT was another busy working week for me with trips to Iloilo City and Bacolod and Bago cities together with Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner Fritz Gaston.
First on the agenda was our trip to IloIlo to meet up with PSC consultant on grassroots sports , Dr. Rey Lapating and people from the IloIlo City National High School, one of the local schools here that offer Special Program for Sports (SPS).
This was in connection with the request made by Dr. Lapating for a dragon boat donation to the IloIlo City National High School for its water sports program.
This is a school that offers a Special Program for Sports (SPS).
Dr. Lapating cited the natural advantage of IloIlo City with its Seine-like river that is good for dragon boat, kayaking, and rowing.
The agreement was for the dragon boat donation to be made accessible to other local people to help promote the sport and in the future, discover possible individual rowing talents.
He also batted for a closer DepEd-PSC partnership with aligned visions for the development of Philippine sports particularly grassroots sports.
At the same time, he reiterated his recommendation for a separate sports coaching course to help develop local coaches.
It is a fact that regular teachers who are not trained on coaching and with limited exposure to sports as a whole but are assigned to be school coaches.
From IloIlo, we crossed by ferry to Bacolod for the organizational meeting with Bago City officials as the LGU is hosting the Visayas edition of the Indigenous Peoples (IP) Games late September.
The Luzon leg was held earlier this year in Salcedo in Ilocos Sur.
We met up with Vice Mayor Ramon Torres on Day 1 as Mayor Nicholas Yulo had to attend to his wife, with Sports Coordinator Ignacio Dellina coordinating the whole thing, including our Day 2 meeting with the local IP community representatives and other LGU officials.
It was good that this LGU has its own city newspaper, radio show, and working relationship with the regional newspapers as together we can promote the event both on a national and local level level and help achieve the objective of keeping alive traditional games.
There are 10 individual and team events to be played, including kadang kadang, trumpo or kasing, sibat or bangkaw, palo sebo, and tug of war.
Venue will be at the Manuel Torres Sports Center while the participants from 17 IP communities will be billeted at the Ramon Torres National High School, adjacent to the venue.
I am certainly looking forward to attending the actual event next month and to the Mindanao leg on October in GenSan, this PSC initiative will culminate in the Palaro ng Lahi that will showcase traditional games to the participants in the Batang Pinoy in Puerto Princesa on December.
On the side we had a very interesting conversation with Vice Mayor Torres about the long history of Bago City in boxing.
I was still in my teens that I was already hearing about Bago being the epicenter of amateur boxing in the country.
You see Bago is to boxing what Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo is in football.
Actually, this was also one of our topics while we were there earlier.
The Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines( ABAP) , in recognition of boxing’s huge popularity in the country had a small ring built there way back in the 70’s, according to the Vice Mayor.
He recalls the times that it was Bago against the rest of the province, even against the rest of the country in national competitions. However, he also acknowledges that the situation has changed.
Spurred by the emergence of Manny Pacquiao, Mindanao, particularly GenSan area, became a hotbed for boxing to the point they were challenging Bago already in the sport.
Not that boxing’s popularity in Bago has gone down, as everyday, around 50 young boxers are being taught and trained by their fathers or uncles in the same ring, retired boxers too who want to ressurect themselves in these young kids.
It is just that now, there are more challengers for Bago in boxing. I just hope something can be done to bring back the glory days of this city in boxing.
Any sport will always be better with a big base of athletes, that includes boxing definitely.
Maybe next time we are there, we can go around with Fritz showing us around as ge hails from Silay, and maybe too, we can visit the Gaston Museum.
