Close to 20 teams are seeing action in the Mayor Manuel “Chiquiting” Sagarbarria Cup which started last Saturday, May 10 until May 29.
Vice Mayor Woodrow Maquiling represented Mayor Sagarbarria in opening the games at the Foundation University gymnasium. Maquiling extolled the virtues of sports in building moral values among the youth. Maquiling, a leader of the church-based Council of the Laity, noted the deterioration of morality among the youth today. “New ideas are eroding our moral values,” Maquiling said in his speech during the opening program.
He said he is hopeful that sports will improve the values of the youth, through the building of teamwork, discipline and sportsmanship. Maquiling also disclosed that for this year, the City has increased the budget for sports.
The Vice Mayor expressed hope that the private-public partnership program for sports, which the City has established with Foundation University, will continue to grow. This is the first time that the Mayor’s Cup is managed by a private entity, the Negros Athletic Association, and is supported by Sun Cellular.
The Negros Athletic Association is a sports league initiated by Foundation University due to the absence of a viable sporting league in Negros Oriental.
Dr. Aparicio Mequi, director of the Institute of Youth Sports for Peace, said the NAA guarantees the holding of four tournaments every year.
Mequi appealed to the athletes to play well and to play peacefully, as he also appealed to the referees of the Samahang Basketbolista ng Pilipinas to help teach values to athletes while they officiate the games.
The games that will be played in the 2014 Mayor’s Cup are basketball, futsal, volleyball and speak takraw. (AP)
