Cebu City vows memorable hosting

CEBU CITY — Cebu City promises that the 64th edition of the Palarong Pambansa will go down as one of the best ever.

Acting Cebu City Mayor Raymond Garcia said he is happy with the effort that the organizers had put in their third hosting of the Games since 1954 and 1994.

Garcia, who was a vice mayor prior to the staging of the Palaro, took over as mayor of the Queen City of the South after the Office of the Ombudsman imposed a six-month preventive suspension on Mike Rama last May due to issues of discrimination and unpaid salaries.

With that, Cebu City’s top councilor and three-time Philippine Basketball Association champion Dondon Hontiveros moved up to acting vice mayor post.

“We’ve been preparing for the past how many months and we’ve prepared our venues and our meeting quarters for the athletes. If everything goes as planned then I expect it will be a success,” Garcia said.

“So yeah, we’ve done a lot of things for the first time for the Palaro and we’re very proud of what we have done.”

For this year’s Palaro, Cebu City allotted a budget of P262 million as it aided the Department of Education in covering the player’s lodging and safety by partnering with the Philippine National Police.

The local government unit will also have its fire trucks on standby to ensure the athletes will have access to clean water.

Garcia also said the phone app used for tracking results and the latest news was free of charge from Aboitiz Equity Ventures, a company whose roots are from Cebu City.

“This is the first time that we have a Palarong Pambansa app, if you know that you should download it so that you can get the schedules, you can go live streaming, you can know where the Philippine quarter is, you can know the location of the venues,” Garcia said.

“It was in partnership with Aboitiz so the city didn’t spend a single cent for the app.”

Garcia said Hontiveros’ experience and background in sports was a major boost to their hosting.

After all, Hontiveros played at the highest level, not only professionally, but also for the national team.

“He’s very much experienced. He actually knows what to do in many cases and when it comes to sports, in Cebu City, he’s the man to talk to,” Garcia said.

“So. he really calls the shots when it comes to sports and we have really given him that role.”