CUBC: City dev-planning should include barangay sports facilities

Acomprehensive development plan for the City of Baguio should include the putting up of barangay sports facilities. This is the gist of a lesson learned from the first intercooperative sports competitions and awarding of prices program successfully organized by the Cooperative Union of Baguio City (CUBC) held at the Baguio City National High School (NCHNS) Gymnasium last Saturday, October 28, 2017. CUBC insists on this.

The day’s affair, denominated as “1917 Inter-Cooperative Sportsfest”, was a culmination of scheduled month-long activities by and among members of CUBC, envisioned to be soon CUBCNL [Cooperative Union of Baguio City and North Luzon] An observer therein could not but notice the natural enthusiasm that emanated from the sporting games, both in the case of the participants as well as of the watchers, who were mostly young people. This shows that wholesome entertainments like sports can draw away people from destructive entertainments like drinking, smoking, gambling, drugs, or even mere laziness. There is no neutral middle ground here because man is by nature a seeker of the surprising and appreciative of the venturesome. Even laziness is a bedroom for him of evil tendencies. For this reason, city development would be sorely defective if it fails to take into account the role of sports in the barangays as if only the world Olympics matters. Neither can we throw the giving and caring of sports facilities to schools alone because utilization in academic campuses is understandably limited.

Triple thumbs up, therefore, to what the membership and officialdom of CUBC have demonstrated to support peoples’ and government’s peaceful war against drug addiction. It was also highly heartening that the youngish-looking but maturely-caring Vice Mayor of Baguio City, Edison “Strong” Bilog took time out of his day’s hectic schedule to give a truly encouraging presence and message to the participants and audience drumbeated into the awarding affair by the members of the Board of Directors, led by intermissionist Chair “Angie” Gayados and other officers of the Cooperative Union of Baguio City. The irresistible voice of Past Chair Susan Angaga resounded presumably beyond the loud-speakered hall in due recognition to him for supporting police and health work by means of sporting games already in the barangay level, the bulwark of cooperativism in Baguio where, according to Sec. Ofelia Valencia and Treas. Virgilia Diaz, CUBC counts of its thirty-five (35) truly active (in good standing) primary cooperative members. The prime purposes of this first-ever inter-cooperative sports competition activity were: To promote physical and mental agility, foster cooperation and mutual understanding, build acquaintances, strengthen camaraderie, and encourage teamwork and sportsmanship between and among the coop members.

The participants were: basketball – Men: Bracket A: BBCCC, BCNHS-MPC, BGHMCEMPC, UPBMPC; Bracket B: BAMAPCOM, BAVESCO, MBCC, TNFMPC. VOLLEYBALL – Women: BAMAPCOM, BAVESCO, BGHMCEMPC, MBCC. BOWLING: Baguio City School Teachers and Employees Multipurpose Cooperative, BAVESCO (A), BAVESCO (B), Friends Multipurpose Cooperative, TEXINS Multipurpose Cooperative, Timber and Lime Multipurpose Cooperative.

The championship round resulted in the following team finish: basketball: Champion – MBCC , 1st Runner-up –BBCCC, 2nd r-u – BAVESCO, 3rd R-u – BCNHSMPC. VOLLEYBALL: Ch. – BAVESCO, 1st R-u - MBCC . . .BOWLING: Ch – TEXINS MPC, 1st R-u – BAVESCO (A) 2nd R-u – TLMC.