Friday, April 18, 2008 Festive air greets NMRAA delegation By Lynde Salgados
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- It could be a gut-wrenching adventurous journey, amid reports of summer typhoon entering and swiftly drifting away from Philippine archipelago. Yet, the 500-strong Northern Mindanao team composed of athletes, coaches, chaperons and delegation officials safely arrived here Thursday.
Aboard the St. Joseph the Worker of Negros Navigation, the NMRAA delegates alongside four more Palaro teams from Mindanao (including Caraga, Region 6 and Region 12) left the Macabalan pier in Cagayan de Oro on Wednesday 3 pm and docked at the superbly clean and orderly seaport here at 11 am.
"It takes only one night to reach the beautiful city of Puerto Princesa since the charter boat carrying us (Mindanao delegations) had courageously decided to take instead the shortcut route bypassing the normal stops in Iloilo and Manila. Under abnormal weather condition, it's obviously a big risk since we were passing through the open sea, but it was already guaranteed then by travel officials that the typhoon had already left the country," said the youthful public school principal, Joselito Felicilda who will be coaching the NMRAA's elementary boys chessers.
Right at the Puerto Princesa wharf, visitors can outrightly feel the warm welcome accorded to them by host Palawan.
Heavy bags of personal belongings slowed down the athletes' walk downstairs off the vessel to the tune of marching band greeting them with lively trumpet sounds on the ground.
And before heading to a number of buses waiting to ferry them to their respective billeting quarters, decent-looking girls would smilingly hang a handi-crafted "necklace" to each of all coaches and officials with the words "good luck to your trip here in Palawan."
To the NMRAA squad's great relief, their school for accommodation is just a two-minute ride or about 200 meters away from the town's entry port.
The weeklong 2008 Palarong Pambansa will kick off on April 20 at the Puerto Princesa Sports Complex, some 6 kilometers away from Holy Trinity College where the Northern Mindanao Regional Athletic Association contingent is billeted.
But even before the action begins in the annual meet for the country's top elementary and secondary athletes, NMRAA is already considered a big winner as it scored one big morale-boosting victory over defending champion National Capital Region.
"The Holy Trinity College is doubtlessly the best billeting school available in Palawan for a Palaro delegation. NCR really wants to be accommodated here but Region 10 prevails in the drawing of lots. The Dominican Sisters run HTC is the only private school here that is viable and functional for the purpose since the rest is not big enough to accept a sizable number of athletes," said Ofelia Ricalde, a public school teacher from Cabayugan Elementary School and designated as one of the caretakers of the NMRAA delegates.
