WINDOWS
Gabriel L. Cardinoza

This week, Pangasinan will host some 5,000 athletes and sports officials who will be participating in this year’s Private Schools Athletic Association national games.

In the 53-year history of the PRISSA, this is the first time for the national games to be held in the province. “Maybe, they didn’t believe we can host a big event like this,” said former Vice Gov. Gonzalo Duque, now president of the Lyceum Northwestern University.

In fact, he added, he had offered the province to the PRISAA board as a national games venue three years ago. But it was only last year — during the PRISAA games in Zamboanga City — that the board finally considered his proposal and agreed to have the games here this year.

In turning down Gonz’s earlier proposals, the PRISAA board may have forgotten that it was in Pangasinan where the much bigger Palarong Pambansa was held in 1995. Had they remembered this, they would have been also instantly refreshed that there are sports facilities in the province that are “world-class,” to borrow former President Fidel V. Ramos’ favorite phrase.

To date, it is only in Dagupan City where an Olympic-sized swimming pool in the entire Ilocos Region is located and it was here where several swimming records were shattered in 1995.

The Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen, which is now under the management of the provincial government, still stands out as a modern sports complex in the region.

Aside from the Palarong Pambansa, the province also hosted other big events, such as the 50th anniversary of the Lingayen Gulf Landings, the nation convention of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Asian Women’s Junior Volleyball Championships.

If Gonz is very proud about the holding of the PRISAA national games here, he is a prouder man because he was able to unite Pangasinenses into supporting the national event. There simply was an outpouring of support.

From what we gathered, the provincial government spent P25 million for the facelift of the NRSCC grandstand. Mayor Benjie Lim, for his part, will be hosting a night for the delegates featuring the famous “Kalutan”, popular singer Gary Valenciano and Mocha, a rising star in the music circle and daughter of the late Judge Gary Uson.

Speaker Jose de Venecia and all the province’s congressmen also chipped in. Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez and the Sangguniang Panlungsod also gave their share. Then, of course, the mayors of the towns where the other games will be played: Mayor Jolly Resuello, Mayor Sammy Rosario and Mayor Jonas Castaneda.

* * * * *

Next year, we should already be eating our Jollibee chicken joy not in the usual Styrofoam pack but in a cardboard box. And all our “take out” or “to go” orders will just have to be packed in a paper bag and not in plastic bags that are being used now.

This is because by then, all business establishments in the city shall have already shifted to biodegradable food packaging materials and eating utensils from the non-biodegradable Styrofoam and plastics that are in use now as mandated by City Ordinance No. 1858-2006.

Styrofoam is actually a trademark of a “light, resilient polysterene plastic used in the manufacture of packaging materials for food, household appliances and the like.”

As defined by the ordinance, plastic packing materials refer to “packing materials, such as carrier bags, plastic refuse bags, and the like most of which are made of polyethelene (a non-biodegradable chemical compound).”

Plastic eating utensils, on the other hand, are the spoons, forks, knives, plates, cups, saucers, and the like, which are also made of polyethelene.

To Mother Earth, this is a breather. With this ordinance, we expect our roadsides, beaches and even drainage canals no longer littered with these unsightly non-biodegradables.