Four Cebuanos will join 111 other Filipino student athletes to the 5th ASEAN School Games in Hanoi, Vietnam slated to start tomorrow.
Representing Region 7 for team Philippines are University of Cebu’s (UC) Dexter Opalia and Fritz Michael Sagaad, Ulyses Lopez of Abellana National School (ANS) and ANS alumni Kevin Petancio, who is now a student of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R).
They will be accompanied by Department of Education (DepEd) regional Physical Education and School Sports chief Vivian Ginete and their coaches. Ginete will serve as Region VII’s delegation head.
The entire Philippine delegation was set to depart for Hanoi today. They will be headed by DepEd undersecretary Tonisito Umali.
Cebu was supposed to have sent 20 athletes but according to Ginete, the reigning Palarong Pambansa secondary basketball boys division champion Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu backed out because of lack of time for preparation.
Ginete said that the organizing committee of the ASEAN School games notified them just one month prior to the event, which is not enough for a whole delegation to prepare fully logistically and financially.
“They are supposed to be strong contenders in basketball but they backed out because they don’t have enough time to process all of the necessary things that their team needs and only seven players of SHS-AdC have passports. Aside from that, DepEd does not have enough budget to support an entire team, so it really saddened us,” said Ginete. She said UC and the parents of Petancio and Lopez raised enough funds for their travel.
The Philippine delegation will be represented by Region 7, National Capital Region, Region 10 and 11. They will be competing in swimming, sepak takraw, volleyball, basketball girls, gymnastics, volleyball, table tennis, badminton and track and field.
The event will last until June 30.
DepEd and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) selected the 115-strong team after the Palarong Pambansa in Dumaguete last summer.
The ASEAN Schools Games will be participated by over 1,500 athletes and coaches from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It aims to enhance friendship among students around the region and seeks to promote ASEAN solidarity among the youth through school sports.