YOUNG SLAMS DEPED 7 FOR WORST PALARO
Cebu City Councilor and assistant Deputy Mayor on Education Joy Augustus Young questioned on how the Department of Education (DepEd) 7 managed the Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa) delegation in the recently concluded 60th Palarong Pambansa.
Cviraa had a dismal finish in the national sporting conclave held in Antique last April 21 to 29, falling to fourth place to ninth place—the region’s lowest ranking in recent memory. The Region 7 squad only hauled 20 gold medals, 18 silver medals and 29 bronze medals.
“I think they (DepEd Region 7) failed management wise. The person in-charge (Luz) Jandayan went to Canada around March 6 after the Cviraa (regional meet) in City of Naga,” Young said during the press conference yesterday.
“If you are incharge, your coordination is the Palarong Pambansa. The question is, where was she? She should be preparing the team for Antique,” added Young.
Dr. Jandayan, the chief of Education Support Service Division (SSD)-DepEd Region 7, told SunStar Cebu in a separate interview that she facilitated the preparation of the delegation before she left for Canada.
“I filed for a leave of absence and assigned an Officer-in-Charge before I left for Canada. I made sure that things were already facilitated. Before I left, the screening of the athletes was already done and the athletes have already started their training,” she said.
Young also pointed out the strict qualification for the team sports, where the winning team in the regional qualifiers had to pick up players from the runner-up team. He said that it’s an ‘impractical rule.’
“For the National Capital Regional, the whole team that won on their regional qualifier represented the region in the Palarong Pambansa,” he stressed.
Jandayan for his part said that it was on the guidelines that a winning team in the regional meet will have the majority of the players but they have to pick up players from the runner-up team.
“This was agreed upon to give chance to the students who have potentials but did not win in the regional meet,” said Jandayan.
Young said that he will ask a statement from the regional director of DepEd 7 on how they managed the region’s delegation for the 60th Palarong Pambansa.
Region 7 was a constant fourth place finisher in the sporting conclave, except in 2015 where they fell to sixth place in Tagum City. This year, Region 7 had 14 gold medals from the secondary division, but only came up with six gold medals in the elementary class.
Meanwhile, Young said that he plans to write a letter to DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones that will suggest that Palarong Pambansa will be purely for public schools.
“I would like to propose not to include private schools in Palarong Pambasa. The private schools have their Prisaa (Private Schools Athletic Association (Prisaa). They should also make Prisaa for elementary,” said Young.
Young plans to give the letter to Deped Secretary Leonor Briones on May 15, on her visit to Cebu for the launching of Brigada Eskewela.