Baguio gov’t not interested to host CARAA in 2021, 2022

Budget for 2020 event reduced to P10-M 

By Dexter See

BAGUIO CITY – The city government signified it is not interested to host the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association (CARAA) in 2021 and 2022 to allow other city governments in the region to have a chance to host the regional sports competition.

Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said the city government will no longer accept default decisions by the regional and district offices of the Dept. of Education declaring Baguio City as the host of future regional sports competitions if there are no local governments interested in hosting the CARAA.

This, as the Dept. of Education-Division of City Schools submitted a revised budget for the city’s hosting of the 2020 CARAA that significantly reduced the earlier proposed budget of P15 million to at least P10 million.

The revised budget proposal was submitted by the education department to the city legislative body for possible consideration in the ongoing budget deliberations of the P2.255 billion annual budget of the city government next year to allow the agency, in coordination with concerned offices of the city, to prepare for the annual regional sports competition in the city.

Earlier, the education department requested the city government to appropriate some P15.5 million from the city’s annual budget next year to defray the expenses that will be incurred by the city in the hosting of the CARAA.

However, some city officials questioned the expenses on the perks, give away items, souvenir items for concerned education and city government officials, among others, and requested the education department to review and revise the itemized budget and reduce some of the expenses considering that the city needs the funds for its other priority projects.

Supposedly, Apayao will be the host of the 2020 CARAA for the second time after the provincial government hosted the 2019 regional sports competition, but the present administration decided to back out from hosting the said competition for the provincial government to focus its available resources on the celebration of the province’s 25th or silver anniversary in February 2020 right which coincides with the scheduled CARAA sports competitions.

                 Baguio City usually serves as the host to other sports delegations from the different parts of the region if there are no local governments that bid to host the sports competition as it can afford to allocate a portion of its available funds to conduct the annual sports event in the region.

                After the education department declared Baguio City as the host of the 2020 CARAA, the education department requested the city to allocate some P15.5 million to defray the expenses needed for the hosting of the annual sports competition whose events can be held in different sports venues around the city.

The city mayor said the city already outlined its priority programs, projects and activities for the next 3 years to build a better Baguio and its needs all the available funds to achieve this the benefit of the present and future inhabitants.

The CARAA serves as an avenue for the selection of deserving athletes from the different parts of the Cordillera who will represent the region in the 2020 Palarong Pambansa in Davao city by April or May next year.

More than 7,000 athletes and sports officials from the eight divisions in the region will be joining the 2020 CARAA sports competitions with the successful medalists representing the region in the different regional, national and international sports competitions.

                Aside from the P15.5 million to be provided by the city government to allow the staging of the CARAA in the city next year, the education department will provide a P600,000 counterpart to defray expenses needed in hosting the regional sports competition.

From 2015 to 2017, Baguio city hosted the CARAA for 3 consecutive years followed by Abra in 2018 and Apayao during the staging of the 2019 regional sports competition which is supposedly conducted around the different local governments comprising the CAR.