The provincial government of Davao Oriental is pushing to provide opportunities to the youth in the province through a sports development program. This is because the provincial government laments the youth being glued to social media and lack of activities.
Provincial Treasurer Maria Victoria Rodriguez revealed that other than the tourism sector development, Governor Corazon Malanyaon wants sports development in her program so the youth do not get involved in illicit drugs and criminal activities.
“We want steps taken to nurture with stakeholders and the Department of Education with sports development. It is my hope that Davao Oriental will be able to produce outstanding sports champions,” Gov. Malanyaon said.
Rodriguez said that they started seminars for sports coordinators from the education department and the local government unit this year.
“We have to involve the DepEd because they are also partners especially in developing kids at the grassroots level. That is why Governor Malanyaon wants our approach to be holistic and under her governance we should really enter sports development,” Rodriguez said.
Malanyaon wants the youth to prioritize their education, and extracurricular activities that focus on sports, especially since the youth have lost interest in sports due to social media.
“Young people are very involved in social media. We have lost that value for education and extra-curricular activities focusing on sports. We are aware and we can’t deny that peace and order and the menace of drugs affect them. They are vulnerable to that,” Rodriguez said.
Malanyaon said that she believes in values formation and discipline through sports. Malanyaon added that she wants intervention through sports.
The provincial government will start the development with Filipino favorite, basketball and volleyball.
