SP wants all Davao City booters to play in Palaro
By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
PARENTS and coaches of the Davao City football teams desiring to field intact line-ups to the coming Palarong Pambansa have found an ally in the Sangguniang Panglungsod of Davao.
Acting on snowballing calls for the rejection of a Department of Education policy on the selection of athletes to the Palaro, the SP on Tuesday passed a resolution supporting such move and endorsing the matter to Deped 11 and Local School Board (LSB) for their consideration.
The Deped 11 had issued a memorandum dated February 27, 2015 to all school division superintendents and Regional Palaro Task Force stating its guidelines which call for a 70-30 selection of players to compose a team.
This policy means that for all team events, 70 percent of players will come from the winning team and that the remaining 30 percent will come from the losing team.
“We strongly disagree on the 70-30,” Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte said in a packed press conference in his office while discussion on the matter was going on inside the session hall.
Duterte said he and majority of the councilors opposed this policy since a team cannot perform well if players from other divisions will be added to it.
“So, we are passing a resolution strongly disagreeing to this policy,” he said.
The SP was acting on the complaints of the parents and coaches of the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) teams which won the gold medals for Davao City in both the elementary and secondary boys football, and the girls futsal in the recent Davao Regional Athletic Association (DAVRAA) Meet in Mati City.
The triumphant ADDU booters, together with their coaches and parents, were recognized by the local lawmakers in yesterday’s regular session.
It was also during the session that the parents presented their position paper opposing the Deped 11 policy on the team selection, saying this does not guarantee of fielding a strong team in the Palaro slated May 3 to 9 in Davao del Norte.
Based on the Deped 11 guideline, the tournament manager, winning coach, losing coaches, team managers of the sports event and Palaro Task Force in charge of the sports event will compose the selection committee.
“The selection guideline is, with due respect, discriminatory, arbitrary, punitive and whimsical which is susceptible of being abused by the members of the selection committee,” the parents said in the position paper read for them by Vincent Marie N. Rendon.
The visit of the parents, coaches and the players, and discussion on the controversy ate up most of the morning session yesterday, with journalists having their own field day scurrying after the visitors for interview.
The issue was first brought up Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang last week when he took the floor during the privilege hour to air the complaints of the parents.
Dayanghirang initially received reports that the winning teams have been dropped from the roster of Palaro participants after one of the coaches failed to attend the deliberations that took place immediately after the DAVRAA Meet.
The DAVRAA Meet is the basis for the selection of Davao Region representatives to the Palarong Pambansa, the country’s biggest sporting competition for elementary and secondary athletes.
Aside from Davao City, other divisions participating in the annual DAVRAA are Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, Compostela Valley, Tagum City, Panabo City, Mati City and Digos City.
