Calbayog City bares preparations as 2011 EVRAA Meet host

By EMY C. BONIFACIO, Samar News.com
January 17, 2011

CATBALOGAN, Samar  –  In a recently held media conference, DepED School Division Superintendent, Dr.Edita Y. Paculan, announced the city’s preparedness to welcome more than 5,000 delegates in the forthcoming EVRAA Meet that will be held from January 31 to February 4, 2011 in Calbayog City.

Dr. Paculan, who is the over all vice-chairman of the 2011 EVRAA Meet Organization and Management Structure, bared the details of the preparation that is being undertaken by Calbayog as its host city. Paculan guested in the regular weekly media conference aired live at DYOG Radyo ng Bayan which was held at the City Tourism and Information Office last January 11.

EVRAA Meet is a yearly sports development activity which is being participated by the different public elementary and secondary schools in Eastern Visayas, held in different venues. This year’s theme is “School Sports: an avenue for values development towards transformation.”

This will be the second time that Calbayog City will be hosting the EVRAA, the first of which was in 2003 during the 1st term of former Mayor, now Cong. Mel Senen Sarmiento. Paculan stressed the importance of a very well planned activities to live up with the expectations of being undefeated in the EVRAA history for its “best hosting” in 2003.

Under its organization and management structure, several working committees have been organized.  Hon. Reynaldo S. Uy is its over all chairman. Concerns on technical and games administration; ceremonial/socials and cultural; billeting; logistics, security & safety measures; publicity/promotion; civic participation and games, venue, facilities, grounds and equipment will be taken cared by the respective committee members.

The Executive Committee has submitted a proposed budgetary requirement amounting to P7 million for the entire activity period. However, it was learned that the amount has been trimmed down from to P5 million where P3.369 million will be spent for the hosting expenses and P1.7 million will be for the actual delegation expenses. They, however, expect for further reduction of the said amount depending on the availability of funds.

Provision of comfort rooms, bathrooms, security and repair of school buildings that will be utilized in housing the delegates will be a few of the major items that will be considered under the hosting expenses. This will be in addition to the P100,000 financial assistance released by the DePED for the repair of various schools which will be used in the four day activity. On the other hand, meal expenses, uniforms, equipment, incidental expenses and honoraria will be charged to the P1.7 million appropriated for the delegation expenses.

Billeting of contingents will be drawn by lots. Each billeting venue will be provided with 50 complete sets of beddings. Expected contingents will come from Leyte, Ormoc City, Biliran, Maasin City, Samar, Southern Leyte, Calbayog City, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar and Tacloban City.

For this year, Calbayog will be having 549 delegates composed of 366 athletes (157-elementary and 209-secondary); 52 coaches; 38 trainers; 60 officials and 32 LGU officials. Paculan explains that in the past, Calbayog has limited delegates because of the financial constraints on transportation.

In terms of performance, Calbayog ranked 3rd in the 2003 EVRAA meet. However, it was learned that last year’s performance was very poor due to lack of training resources.

The delegates are expected to arrive on the 27th where athletes will be interviewed at their billeting quarters. Submission and screening of athletes’ documents will start on January 14-20. The athletes coming from both the elementary and secondary levels should present NSO certified live birth certificates.  In order to qualify, athletes from the secondary level should be born on 1993 and elementary level participants should be born on 1998.

A grand parade around the city will signal the start of the activities on January 30 at 1:00 p.m. The formal opening will be held at Northwest State University immediately after the parade. A field demonstration which will be joined by at least 400 students from various schools will be presented to include the famous performance of the SARAKIKI.

Dr. Paculan was optimistic that the weather improves soon. However, in case the rain continues, the committees laid down contingency plans A and B to ensure that events will not be disrupted. “Games will continue as scheduled whether it rains or shines”, she further stressed.