BAGUIO CITY – Five more non-contact sports are to be allowed here anytime soon as the city is expected to be downgraded to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Paul Rillorta of the city sports office said that guidelines are being drafted to be observed in allowing golf, racket games, skateboarding, cycling, and tennis to be included in the list of allowable sports activities when the city was put under a GCQ last May 15.
At present, walking, jogging, running and Zumba are allowed on city streets and parks provided that fitness enthusiasts observe hygienic measures like physical distancing of at least five meters.
Rillorta said that the other sports will be allowed as recommended by the Inter-Agency Task Force which also included swimming.
But Rillorta said that the Baguio swimming pool at the Baguio Athletic Bowl remains closed as construction remains unfinished.
“Golf, tennis, racket games, skateboarding, cycling, running, walking except swimming because (the) pool (is still) under development,” Rillorta told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) through a social media private message.
Rillorta said that his office is drafting the guidelines for sports after the GCQ and long term plans for the sports industry including the planned financial assistance for sportspeople like coaches, trainers, and referees affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
He said that coordinated works with the city council committee on sports, headed by councilor Levy Lloyd Orcales, are being made for sports and those affected by the ECQ.
Orcales has earlier proposed with the city council that the unspent amount for the city’s hosting of the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association will be used to assist coaches, trainers, and referees affected with the cancelation of all sports events due to the Covid-19.
The money amounting to almost PHP5 million will be of great assistance pending the drafting of a stimulus package for the sports sector, said city council chair for education councilor Vladimir Cayabas.
Cayabas had been tasked to coordinate with the Department of Education-Baguio Division on how much actually remains from the PHPP15-million CARAA fund, from there, they will tackle how to spend this for the needs of those from the sports sector.
“We will provide financial assistance first before we come out with a program for those from the sports sector as this is immediate and they had suffered for more than two months now,” said Cayabas, who owns a technical-vocational school. **By Pigeon Lobien
