By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff reporter
Laoag City—The Schools Division of Ilocos Norte (SDOIN) sent 114 delegation to the 2019 Palarong Pambansa to be held in Davao City from April 27-May 4, 2019.
Of the 114 delegates, education program specialist II Rochito Duque said 83 of them are athletes, 22 coaches, two chaperons and seven other persons from Ilocos Norte. They left for Davao on April 16, 2019 to prepare early for the said national sports event.
Mr. Duque said the SDOIN prepared some food wrapped made of banana leaves for their travel.
As part of this endeavor, the provincial government of Ilocos Norte approved PHP500,000 from the Special Education Fund (SEF) for the Ilocos Norte delegation.
He said the conduct of Palarong Pambansa is in accordance with RA No. 10588 otherwise known as the Palarong Pambansa Act of 2013, which aims to select athletes to represent the country in a higher level of sports competition worldwide.
SDOIN superintendent Vilma Eda thanked the provincial government for the allocated fund given to the athletes together with their transportation from Laoag to Manila and back.
Mrs. Eda announced that despite Ilocos Norte athletes not being able to garner the highest number of gold medals during the recent Region 1 Athletic Association meet, Ilocos Norte still has the most-number of athletes that were chosen from Region I for the Palarong Pambansa.
The Laoag City government, meanwhile also sent off 23 athletes for the 2019 edition of the event.
Education program supervisor Arsendio Cabacungan announced only selected athletes were given the chance to join especially those who won the gold medals in the recent R1AA meet.
The Laoag athletes will compete in arnis, basketball (boys), chess, taekwondo, swimming, gymnastics and athletics.
Mr. Cabacungan also thanked the city government for sending these athletes for free from Laoag to Manila and vice versa.