Bantay to bid for Palaro with state-of-art facility

MANILA, Philippines - The Ilocos Sur provincial government unveiled the President Elpidio Quirino Stadium, a state-of-the-art sports facility in Bantay, Ilocos Sur which will bid to host the Palarong Pambansa in 2018.

“We are very happy that our dream has become more than a reality. Our Quirino Stadium is the only third world class sports complex in the country,” said Gov. Ryan Singson.

The facilities include basketball courts, lawn tennis court, a rubberized track oval, and an artificial football pitch. According to provincial sports coordinator Marius Cabudol, the construction of beach volleyball court inside the stadium is under way while a covered court for indoor sports such as badminton, table tennis and boxing, wide and infinity swimming pool, and billeting quarters will also be built soon.

“We made the state of the art sport facilities to hone our athletes even as we look forward to bringing the Palarong Pambansa here in the province on 2018. This is open to all local clubs for their athletes’ training,” said Singson.  

Msgr. Garry Formoso blessed the newly built infrastructure witnessed by other provincial government officials, Department of Education regional director Dr. Alma Ruby Torio and other DepEd officials, Tourism Council headed by Eddie Quirino and representatives of various sectors.

A football match between Ilocos Sur and R1AA XIs was also held with Gov. Singson, Torio, sports coordinators and coaches of the Region 1 Athletic Association (R1AA) leading the ceremonial kickoff.

The DepEd has commended the leadership of Gov. Singson for the construction of the sports complex put up to further boost sports development among the Ilocano youth.

“With this kind of sports facilities you have in your province right now, I am confident that the athletes’ skills will be more developed leading to more awards,” said Torio.