Millionaires game

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will be shelling out a huge cash bounty to the top performing delegations in the 2018 Philippine National Games (PNG), which will be co-hosted by the Cebu City Sports Commission and the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission on May 19-25.

"For this year, the teams will be LGU (local government unit) based. All the national athletes will play for their LGUs. We are giving quite a hefty sum as prize money,” said PSC Commissioner Ramon Fernandez after the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the PSC and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña relative to Cebu's hosting of the multi-sport meet.

The overall champion will receive P5 million, while the second to fifth placers will take home P4M, P3M, P2M, and P1M, respectively.

These figures are outside of the P61 million that the PSC has set aside for the PNG. The opening salvo alone costs P4M, according to Fernandez.

About 9,000 elite athletes nationwide will be coming over to the Queen City of the South and compete in 21 events spread in different venues including in Lapu-Lapu City, Naga, Danao and Tabuelan.

Gymnastics and rugby, however, will be held in Manila due to the unavailability of a standard facility for such sporting disciplines here.

Fernandez said the cities and towns that serve as playing venues will benefit as the equipment will be left on their keeps after the games.

“All of the equipment that will be used during the games will be left on the hands of the Cebu City Sports Commission ug kadtong other cities ug towns nga venue, ang mga equipment kay ibilin pud sa ilaha,” said Fernandez.

Furthermore, Fernandez said the PNG will serve as a tryout for the provincial athletes to the national team.

"The elite athletes of the cities and the provinces will play for this. We envision this to become a tryout to the national team. We wanted to do this to give equal opportunities for everyone as we envision this to become the Philippine Olympics," Fernandez said.

PSC is almost a hundred percent with regards to its preparations for the PNG  including a grand opening ceremony that is something to look forward to.

"There are just few things to work on especially the opening ceremony. Ang gi-prepare ni Ricky Ballesteros is an international standard nga opening so it’s going to be a very grand opening ceremony," said Fernandez. (FREEMAN)