EVERY Ilonggo knows Dr. Raymundo A. Lapating, the retired Iloilo division schools superintendent. Retired, yes, but definitely not tired, having gone more physical.
For the past five years – having been appointed by Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. as executive director of the Center for Sports and Physical Fitness (CSPF) at the Iloilo Sports Complex – he has flexed his muscles in transforming his office into an effective dynamo for sports development.
The CSPF is the implementing arm of the Iloilo Sports Development and Management Office (ISDMO), which is now in the thick of preparation for the forthcoming Western Visayas Sports League in December (dates to be decided yet) that will pit the best teenage athletes from both public and private schools against each other in priority sports disciplines, such as athletics, volleyball, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, football, lawn tennis, table tennis, softball, taekwondo, arnis and swimming.
Together, Dr. Lapating and Dr. Janelyn T. Fundal (administrator of the Iloilo Sports Complex) have assembled a team of provincial sports trainers and their counterparts in 23 municipal sports training centers. To name a few, Barotac Nuevo hones athletes in football, basketball and badminton; Ajuy and Lucena, strictly in table tennis; Guimbal in lawn tennis and basketball; and Dumangas in volleyball and table tennis.
Talking of Dr. Ma Janelyn Fundal, she used to be assistant division superintendent in Bago City and badminton umpire of international renown, having officiated the 2016 Rio Olympics at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The ranking competitors in the Western Visayas Sports League may qualify for the next Palarong Pambansa or any other athletic meet, whether public or private, with each local government funding its participation.
Iloilo’s Development League Program looms as the prototype of an innovative way to promote year-round youth sports aimed at enhancing sports skills and physical fitness, winning back today’s young people “lost” to sit-down computer games.
“Sports is not only about winning,” Dr. Lapating told this writer. “It is most decidedly character-building.”
Toward that end, the Iloilo Sports Development and Management Office (ISDMO) has conceptualized a developmental “grassroots” sports program focusing on priority events already enumerated above with participants from the barangays, sports clubs, schools and municipalities; as well as on positive values like sportsmanship, teamwork, discipline, honesty, courtesy, volunteerism, solidarity, excellence and fair play.
Lapating is the man behind the province’s five-year sports road map covering the years 2014 to 2018.
The provincial government is also serious in the development of professional sports, as exemplified by the recent signing of a memorandum of agreement between Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. and Paul Antoine Tolentino, the general manager of the famous Una Kaya Futbol Club Inc. Under the agreement, the provincial government will make available the Iloilo Sports Complex as Kaya-FC’s home stadium for trainings and games for Philippine Football League 2018.
GOODBYE TO A NEWSHEN’S DAD
Tuesday night, Ramon J. Hibionada Sr., the dad of our fellow journalist Florence Hibionada, passed away at 84 after four years of lingering illness. Condolences to the bereaved family.
We share these revealing excerpts from Florence’s Facebook page written on the night her dad died: “It was a tough four years, yet toughest in the past year. What do you do when you see someone seemingly lose a piece of himself everyday? What should you do to make his days better? What can you do really when science itself still has no answer? You pray. And pray we did particularly today as the Holy Rosary was repeatedly played for Tatay to hear. Breaks my heart how he struggled to call my lola, his nanay.” (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
