DAVAO CITY, (PNA) – The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) had officially announced the scrapping of the three sports events in Batang Pinoy National Games slated on Nov. 19-23 in Bacolod City due to low turn-out of participants.
The advisory was posted in the official Facebook page of the PSC.
With this, Davao City will no longer be sending its judo and soft tennis players together with the pencak silat, according to an official from the Davao City Sports Development Division.
“We will not also use their budget to send the silver medalists of the other qualified sports since kulang ito,” he said.
Only the gold medalists from the Mindanao Qualifying leg held in Tagum are being financed by the city government with a budget of only P1.5 million.
The medalists in the national finals in Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon legs from beach volleyball, archery, baseball, Muay Thai, rugby football, sailing and wushu were also advised not to go to Bacolod.
Still qualified to compete in the national championships are the gold, silver and bronze medalists in individual events in the sports that underwent qualifying rounds in Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon legs.
Also entered are the medalists in team events with less than six members per team like athletics (relay), karatedo, sepak takraw, swimming (relay) and taekwondo, and the gold and silver medalists only in team events like lawn tennis, volleyball, softball, futsal and cheerdance.
The bronze medalists in the team events of volleyball, softball, futsal and cheerdance may also join on their own. Delegations from Zamboanga City, Bacolod City and Negros Occidental are seeded in all sports in the national championships but they are only allowed to endorse only one team per sport.
PSC will only give the monetary subsidy of P3,000 to each member of the team and their coach if they win any medal in the national championships.
The Batang Pinoy 2013 is a program in pursuance of Executive Order No. 44 also known as the Philippine Youth Games – Batang Pinoy. It is in partnership with the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Education (DepEd) and the respective Local Government Units (LGUs).
The Batang Pinoy is for the children ages 15 and below belonging to different sports associations. The Mindanao Qualifying Leg was held in Tagum City, Davao del Norte last August 27–31, Visayas Qualifying leg in Maasin City, Southern Leyte last September 24-28 and Luzon Qualifying Leg in Iba, Zambales last October 15-19.