Biñan makes athletes’ stay ‘comfortable’

TOKEN The first 100 spectators of the football games in Laguna will get this shirt for free. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The government of Biñan City, which hosts the football matches in the 30th Southeast Asian Games (SEAG), went the extra mile, as it also took the opportunity to showcase its local delicacy to an international crowd.

City officials had prepared hundreds of shirts, marked with “I love Biñan, Philippines,” along with souvenir tumblers and mugs for the athletes.

Shirts will also be given away to the first 100 spectators of the football games every day.

Local delicacy

The city was also planning to serve P50,000 worth of “puto Biñan,” a rice cake considered a local delicacy, to the crowd when the Philippine teams compete next week.

“The only problem we see right now is the transportation of the spectators in going back to Manila,” said city information officer Roman Carencia.

He said guests, especially foreigners, used car-hailing apps when traveling to Laguna province, but taxicabs and car rentals were not too common coming from the suburban city.

Amid criticisms on the Philippines’ overall readiness to host such a big sports event, Biñan makes up for it by making as comfortable as possible the visitors’ stay in the city, Carencia said.

He said the city would deploy 40 e-tricycles to ferry people from the football field to the bus stations or pickup points for cabs.

Other football fans, he said, had rented rooms and apartments, filling up lodging facilities, during the SEA Games week.