Athletes who triumphed in last week’s Palarong Panlalawigan face the prospect of inadequate training for next year’s regional sports meet as only P6 million has been allocated by the provincial government for all sports activities in 2024.
Assuming that the provincial meet next October would cost P2 million to stage, this would leave a balance of just P4 million which is just a third of the P12 million spent for Catanduanes’ participation in the 2023 Palarong Bicol, preparatory training included.
This was stressed by Division Sports Officer Fidel Vegim in an interview with the Tribune last week on the second day of the sports competition.
“If we cannot source funds from other stakeholders, only a token delegation could be sent to the Palarong Bicol next year,” he said.
He admitted that athletes who won in their respective events last week could be disappointed as they already know they already qualified for participation in the regional meet.
Even if a trimmed-down delegation is fielded, the biggest loser will be team sports which contribute only one medal despite having many members, Vegim bared.
Food, uniforms, equipment and transportation account for the bulk of the expenses of the Catanduanes delegation to the Palarong Bicol.
“We will have to look for partners – businesses and civil-minded individuals – who could adopt teams and spend for their uniforms and equipment,” the division official said.
For the upcoming Bicol meet, school-based training will be held starting this January, with the municipality-based concentration training to be conducted two months before the event.
The intensive training at the Catanduanes Athletic Complex will begin two to three weeks before the Palarong Bicol, Vegim stated, but while this gives local athletes an edge, it will all depend on the availability of funds which will determine the duration of the training.
He expressed confidence that the province would be able to improve on its performance in the regional meet as it has athletes who are potential medalists, including Palarong Pambansa boxing bronze winner Yurrico Subion and long jumper Jejireh Alcantara, who placed 4th in the 2023 Batang Pinoy-Philippine National Games recently.
The regional athletic meet will be held sometime in April 2024 in the cities of Legazpi, Tabaco and Ligao in Albay province.
Catanduanes is the first among the six Bicol provinces to hold its provincial meet, which is the basis for the selection of participants to the regional Palaro.
A total of 3,433 athletes, officials, coaches and trainers joined the Palarong Panlalawigan held Dec. 27-29, 2023 in various venues.
Only Viga and Virac fielded a complete set of participants in all athletic events while the other towns sent only those who they deemed had a realistic chance of winning.
Budget constraints forced majority of the delegations to participate in about 60 to 75 percent of the events as their respective local government units had already spent or allocated their budgets for the year.
Many student athletes also missed out on joining as they had already planned to spend the holidays in Metro Manila.
DSO Vegim disclosed that preparations for the provincial meet began as early as Nov. 27, about two weeks before Virac held its municipal meet on Dec. 10-11.
He said that DepEd Catanduanes Schools Division Superintendent Socorro dela Rosa learned during the meeting of the Local School Board that there was still P1.5 million available for use in the 2023 provincial meet in the Special Education Fund (SEF).
“We were obligated to use the available funds as it is not a continuing appropriation,” he added, pointing out that the 2024 SEF only provided funding for the April regional meet and the October Palarong Panlalalawigan.
He admitted that there was some resistance among the public school district supervisors on the sudden decision to hold the provincial meet, considering that it was already nearing the year’s end.
Some towns reduced the size of their team and solicited funds for uniforms and other expenses, while the Caramoran delegation scratched one team from its roster due to lack of funds.
Some participants were spotted running barefoot in their respective races, as their delegations could not afford the P2,000 cost of spike shoes.
The organizers were likewise unable to repair the track and field oval, overgrown in places with weeds and carabao grass, restored as they could afford to pay for only the brush cutting.
The chief executive of the host municipality, Mayor Samuel Laynes, visited the delegations billeted in schools, donated two bags of rice each as assistance and directed the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office to deliver water to two schools – Gogon Elementary School and Virac Central Elementary School – where low water pressure was noted.
He likewise deployed a truck to transport athletes to a northern town after the truck they were using suffered a mechanical defect in barangay Palta Small during their trip home last Friday.