DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 Apr) – Several plastic bottles and other wastes were left on the bleachers of the newly-opened football stadium of the Davao City-UP Mindanao Sports Complex after the opening ceremony of the 62nd Palarong Pambansa (National Games) here on Sunday.
The stadium was filled with thousands of visitors cheering for the student athletes from the country’s 17 regions during the two-hour parade but an unpleasant sight of waste sitting on the bleachers was revealed when the crowd left.
Garbage – mostly plastic bottles, plastic bags, empty packs of junk foods, food packs, and even Palarong Pambansa flaglets – had been scattered even as trash bins were provided around the sports complex for proper waste disposal.
The City Government of Davao has an existing Ecological Solid Waste Management Ordinance, which “prohibits littering, scattering, throwing, and dumping of wastes in public places.”
The ordinance, approved on February 10, 2010 when President Rodrigo R. Duterte was still mayor of Davao City, also prohibits open burning of solid waste, non-segregation of solid waste, and open dumping and burying of solid waste in flood prone areas.
The Palarong Pambansa, the country’s the biggest local sporting event, was expected to draw a crowd of 20,000.
This was the second time that the City of Davao hosted the annual multi-sport event, the first being in 1950, or 69 years ago. In 2015, neighboring Tagum City in Davao del Norte hosted the 58th edition of the national games.
The P8-billion 20-hectare sports complex – which has a training gym, multipurpose building, football field, track oval equipped with FIFA-tested and certified artificial turf, and aquatics center – was inaugurated during the opening of the Davao Regional Athletic Association (DAVRAA) Meet 2019 last January 27.
The sports complex broke ground in 2015 when the local government struck a deal with the University of the Philippines for the donation of a 20-hectare lot for the sports facilities. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)