Palaro incentives awarded Friday

Fifty-seven individual athletes from Visayas and forty-seven from Mindanao will receive their monetary awards, the last of the two-part bonanza promised by President Joseph Estrada for outstanding performers in the first Palaro ng Bayan (PnB) held early this year at the SOCKSARGEN area.

The long-delayed awards ceremonies will be held Friday at the La Proa ballroom of the L’Fischer Hotel in Bacolod City with San Juan Mayor Jinggoy Estrada, representing the President, handing out the incentives to the second batch of recipients.

Mayor Estrada leaves for Bacolod early today to be with the visiting San Juan Knights who will go up against arch-rival the Negros Slashers in the best-of-seven national finals of the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) at the St. La Salle gym.

"We apologize for the delay but there were circumstances beyond our control. We hope the athletes and their parents understand the situation we had to go through," said Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) commissioenr Leonardo Celles. Celles co-chairs the PnB Executive Committee.

"But definitely everything that President Estrada had promised the children during the first Palaro ng Bayan will be fulfilled," Celles continued. "As the saying goes: Huli man daw at magaling, makakahabol pa rin."