Palarong Pambansa in Iloilo City

Drum beats continued until late in the evening and the thousands of Ilongos who trooped to the Iloilo Sports Complex on Saturday night were reluctant to leave the stadium and stayed until very late into the night.

And so with the 7,000 athletes who swarmed Iloilo’s rehabilitated sports complex, which cost P10 million to refurbish, according to Gov. Niel Tupas.

Palaro 2005 started off with an impressive cultural presentation by a highly-inspired Ilonggo population, who last hosted the country’s premier athletic event 14 years ago. The delegations marched into the complex in their multi-colored coats under the ebbing heat of the afternoon sun.

The various numbers went off with precision. There were only minor glitches. The culture-starved crowd simply lapped up the many presentations prepared by various Western Visayas troupes, including the impressive presentation of Binirayan 2005, courtesy of Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, who was credited for having brought the Palaro to Iloilo, was visibly moved by the affair. Incidentally, it was also in Iloilo where the first Palaro was held in the country in 1939.

Education Secretary Florencio Abad beamed as he spread seeds to usher in the start of the games. A hundred pigeons and hundreds of balloons were released and soared over the city.

Local execs

Naturally, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas and Gov. Niel Tupas were the most excited.

Trenas’ short welcome address paid tribute to Drilon and Secretary Abad. Iloilo City, he pointed out, tried its best to make the affair memorable and significant. "Our hope is that you will bring home nice memories of your stay in Ioilo City."

Tupas, however, got cheers when he remembered that it was also Mother’s Day and greeted everybody.Then he recalled that the Palaro was inaugurated here in 1939 and was last staged here 14 years ago.

Colorful

Originally called the Public Schools Interscholastic Athletic Association games (PSIAA), the Palaro was actually first held in the Paglaum Stadium of Bacolod City during the early years of Martial Law.

In short, Tupas may have referred to PSIAA, the precursor of the Palaro, when he mentioned the 1939 staging of the games.

Local and national officials attended the games with their respective delegations. It was impossible to recall who had gone to Iloilo with their respective athletic delegations and who flew into town separately.

Among the most conspicuous were Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes, Puerto Princesa’s Edward Hagedorn, Oriental Negros Gov. George Arnaiz and Antique Gov. Perez. There was also Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Rep. Edcel Lagman, who led the Bicol Athletic delegation.

The rest, however, were lost among the crowd. Rep. Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City displayed a speech-making prowess that must have astounded even his constituents.

There was also Butch Ranirez. Often mentioned was Rep. Renzto Unico, chairman of the house sports committee and Iloilo City Rep. Raul Gonzales Jr.

Unity and discipline

Drilon’s speech dwelt on the role of the Palaro in internalizing among athletes and students the need for discipline and unity.

Drilon cited the value and the need for discipline. "We often display lack of self-discipline," he said in his opening speech.

He noted, however, that we are often watak (disunited). Unity and discipline, he stressed, are that we need to move forward.

Drilon pointed out that his countryside development fund, which was allotted to classroom building, had already built 850 classrooms in various parts of the country with the help of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

"At half the cost of government contractors," he stressed. The goal, he said, is to build a total of 1,400 classrooms before his term ends.

He said the Palaro may produce models for the present generation to emulate. "We need role models and only the education department has the capacity to manage the Palaro and produce role models for the young," Drilon stressed.

He also egged the crowd to focus on the Southeast Asian Games which will be staged in the country in six months.

In short, he expressed hope that the Palaro could breed a gold medalist in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The same appeal was made by Puentevella in his speech.

Definitely, the 7,000 to 8,000 delegates and their supporters will go home with fond memories of Iloilo and what it has to offer to visitors. This may prove to be a tourism boon to the city and the rest of the province.

ADDENDA. Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane said over the weekend that legalizing jueteng is an option worth looking into. But what made his statement controversial was that it got the nod of Rep. Ignacio Arroyo, brother-in-law of President Arroyo. Both said though that there is a need to consult the Filipino people and Church authorities first. Perhaps, we should consider that it will not only solve the social problem, it may provide additional revenues for the government and channel this to proper agencies, not just end up in the pockets of financiers, Ebdane said. Arroyo added that "if it (jueteng) will generate more revenues, then it is possible to study the move to legalize jueteng." That immediately fanned the fires of controversy as Arroyo had been reportedly referred to as JS7, the code for the three top officials mentioned as recipients of some P20-million monthly jueteng payola. . . . . Assistant City Prosecutor Rosanna Saril-Toledano said on Sunday that an assistant prosecutor fits the description of the person suspected by the police as the one who shot at her office at the city prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor, Toledano said, had recently been bragging about target shooting and winning in competitions and often shows off his guns. Well, the police should be able to come up with substantive findings. Otherwise, it will be just another theory. But one thing good about the present controversy in the City Prosecutor’s Office is that finally, Second Assistant City Prosecutor Arlete Catherine Date received on Friday the Department Order No. 216 of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez naming her as officer-in-charge of the Bacolod Prosecutor’s office in the absence of City Prosecutor Augustos Rallos, who was asked to go on leave for 30 days. This is reportedly to pave the way for an in-depth probe into allegations of Toledano and two other prosecutors that there were irregularities in the handling of drug cases.