Palaro delegates to enjoy Kabilin tour

CEBU, Philippines — Delegates and visitors of the upcoming Palarong Pambansa 2024 will not only enjoy sports activities, but a full cultural immersion through a hop-on, hop-off tour around Cebu City.

In the program released by organizers, Palarong Pambansa delegates and guests, who will be here in Cebu for the event on July 9-16 will get to enjoy two separate dates of going around the city.

On July 12, the tour will bring the visiting delegates to different heritage structures of downtown Cebu, which is considered Cebu’s Heritage District.

Just before the closing ceremony for the Palaro, there will be another “Adlaw sa Kabilin” for the delegates on July 16 that will be dedicated for museums and galleries.

Change in venues

Palarong Pambansa organizers, meanwhile, have disclosed a few changes in sporting venues as a result of the recent final technical conference.

Lapu-Lapu City, which was supposed to host the elementary boys’ 5x5 games, will instead be hosting all 3x3 games in basketball, specifically at the Hoops Dome.

Further, the elementary boy’s division will instead be playing at the University of the Visayas (UV) Main Campus in Colon Street and the Cebu Eastern College has been taken out as a venue.

The gymnastics’ aero event will then be moved to SM Seaside instead of UV.

For football, all elementary boys’ action will be held at Don Bosco Technical College in Punta Princesa, while some games of the secondary division will be at the Borromeo-Dynamic Herb Complex in Inayawan, Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu in Mandaue, and the Cebu City Sports Center. There will be no more games at the University of San Carlos-Talamban.

USC Talamban will instead host some of the softball games, as well as in SM Seaside lot 11.

Pencak silat will be at Robinsons Galleria instead of UC METC and for tennis, Alta Vista will be for secondary boys instead of the elementary girls, while the secondary girls will remain at Asmara in Banilad. The elementary girls will play at the CitiGreen in Punta Princesa, while their male counterparts will be at Villa Aurora.

JVA on removing electric wires

Despite not reaching its target date to complement the Palarong Pambansa hosting, the Cebu City Government will still wait for the final proposal regarding the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) for the implementation of the underground cabling in the city.

As part of the long-term plans to eliminate any visible wires in sight, Councilor Jerry Guardo, chairman of the Committee on Infrastructure of the Cebu City Council said they are eyeing to pilot the said project at Jones Avenue.

Originally, Guardo said they had targeted to implement the pilot project in time for the Palarong Pambansa hosting. "But tan-aw nako, apiki na," he said.

Guardo said the underground installation will be covering 91 kilometers of Cebu City streets, particularly along the major thoroughfares.

He shared that they are expecting to get a hold of this proposal by this month or next month at the very least.

"Kay we are actually finalizing ang ilahang financial runs, ang ilang legal, ug ilang technical, so gi-incorporate na nila tanan," said Guardo.

Once this proposal is approved, it will then be forwarded to the city mayor and the selection committee will then review the proposal.

Guardo said they are looking into beginning the project by the end of this year.

According to Guardo, they call this project a hybrid solution, adding that they can only cater to the major thoroughfares. For the interior portions of the city, like the sitios within the barangays, Guardo said it will remain with overhead wirings.

But to regulate the installation of overhead wires, they will also implement standards by regulating the telco posts. This includes imposing the minimum height requirement for each post, which is 18 feet.

This is after they have observed that the interior portions have low-lying wires with smaller posts that can result in sagged electric wires.

"This can be one of the reason nga atong nga government responder, atong mga girescue sa atong mga firetrucks, often times maglisod sila mag penetrate so it causes a delay sa ilang pag rescue kay ma sangit-sangit sila," said Guardo.

In line with this, Guardo said they will be implementing both works simultaneously - the underground cabling installation and the standardized posts at the sitio level.

But while the underground wiring has not been started, Guardo earlier said they were able to clear the spaghetti wires around the vicinity of the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC), where the opening event for the Palarong Pambansa will take place.

Guardo said they have bundled these dangling wires as they have identified at least 15 redundant poles that were already removed. — (FREEMAN)