Viva Naga!
BY all indications, except for the absence yet of a formal
blessing by Her Excellency, Madam President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo, it looks like there’s no stopping Naga City from
hosting on May 7-13 this year’s Palarong Pambansa, the country’s
biggest amateur sports extravaganza for elementary and secondary
schools athletes. DepEd OIC Secretary Fe Hidalgo put it more
succinctly: “There being no objection from Malacanang (after
informing the President of the DepEd’s decision to award the
hosting to Naga City), we take it that Palarong Pambansa 2006, as
duly recommended, will be held in Naga City.”
The annual national games will bring together some 8,000 athletes
from the country’s 17 competing regions that will vie for top
honors in various sports disciplines. Already, during the meeting
of the Palarong Pambansa 2006 national technical committee in Naga
City last March 27, all the participating regions drew lots in the
assignment of billeting centers among the different public schools
in the city. It also assigned the different playing venues for the
18 or so sports events that will see action during the weeklong
competitions.
Indeed, in Naga City, one good thing leads to another, and more.
After the successful Palarong Bicol and upcoming hosting of
Palarong Pambansa by the City of Naga, more colorful and bigger
events are expected to take place in this fair city in the coming
months. The 1,500 strong League of Local Planning and Development
Coordinators of the Philippines, Inc. (LLPDCPI) will be holding
its 17th annual national convention here on June 14-16, this year.
Shortly after that, on June 18-25, to be exact, the Metro Naga
Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be conducting the 2nd Bicol
Business Week, dubbed as the biggest trade show in Bicol. At about
such time, when the city government celebrates its 58th charter
anniversary, city hall will launch “Viva Naga Naga 2007”, an
ambitious tourism and investment program that will reinvent Naga
as a fired-up tourism and investment haven, its high-powered line
up of activities to run up until 2007. Plans are also afoot for
Naga City to host the first national festival on digital animation
in the country. Already, the United Architects of the Philippines
Naga City-Camarines Sur Chapter, with full endorsement by the Naga
City Government, is bidding to stage the 15th National Conference
of Architects in the month of October, this year. According to UAP
Secretary-General Gil C. Evasco, the staging of the annual event
is primarily aimed at exposing many of our architects from around
the country to the beauty and grandeur of the Filipino’s variant
culture and heritage.
More than the sights and sounds, the hospitality of its hotels,
the exquisite taste of Bicolano dishes, and its picturesque
colonial landmarks and architecture, visitors to Naga are hoped to
discover and experience the warm and gentle traits of its people
during the period that we play host to a series of interesting
regional and national events in the spirit of friendship and
national harmony.
Dagos po kamo!
