P20 million worth of donations for Palaro athletes received

CEBU, Philippines — At least P20 million worth of products gathered as donations for the Palarong Pambansa 2024 were recently turned over through the Department of Education (DepEd) Central Office External Partnership Service.

The turnover ceremony at the City Central School yesterday, July 8, 2024, was spearheaded by DepEd Assistant Secretary and Palarong Pambansa Secretary General Francis Cesar Bringas, DepEd-7 Representative and Education Support Services Tomas Pastor, and Assistant School Division Superintendent Adolf Aguilar.

In an interview, Rolly Soriano of the National Communication and Marketing Committee said that the P20 million worth of products is an accumulated support intended for freebies of the athletes.

He clarified no sum would be converted to cash as they also did not receive donations in cash as instructed by the Office of the Secretary.

"T-shirts, energy drinks, biscuits, mga snacks, breads. Others are gift certificates para dun sa mga nanalo na mga bata, at saka mga sports equipment...for specific sports like, meron kaming partner na specifically for futsal at taekwondo and then sa swimming...mga gears and equipments nila," he said enumerating the list of the donated products.

He further said that even with the Brigada Eskwela, they no longer accept cash donations.

According to Soriano, some of the items are already in the City, while some are still being sent and more will come after the program. They will divide the donations fairly among the 17 participating regions.

Donations are set to be released from July 8 to 11, with schedules and instructions given during the distribution to manage time effectively.

“And then habang tinatanggap po namin ang mga donations coming from our partners ay magbibigay po kami ng schedule or instructions kung paano po ang release po natin para hindi po tayo magkukunti sa oras kasi alam po natin na sunod-sunod yung mga activities na ginagawa po natin in preparation for the sports events,” Soriano added.

Further, Soriano encouraged the sponsors to support athletes all year round, and not just during the Palarong Pambansa, emphasizing the need for the athletes' training and holistic support.

Bringas also expressed gratitude to the sponsors and extended hope that the same vigor will be extended for the Palarong Pambansa 2025 hosting in Ilocos Norte.

“We are confident that with your contributions and donations that the Palarong Pambansa, our event here in Cebu City will be very successful and…we can’t thank you enough for doing that,” Bringas said.