The Provincial Sports and Development Office is looking for alternative billeting quarters for the Negrense athletes who will compete in the Western Visayas Regional Athletics Association Meet because the rooms at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod City will not be enough once the rest of the contingent arrives on Sunday, PSDO officer-in-charge Manuel De Oro said yesterday.

De Oro said the management of Panaad, the billeting quarters of the regional meet-bound athletes, is also looking for solutions to provide enough accommodation facilities for all of the Negrense participants.

Around 500 athletes and officials are expected to be accommodated at Panaad, with players in the elementary and secondary athletics and volleyball teams already staying at the complex.

The Negros athletes will compete in the WVRAA meet from March 16-20 in Roxas City, Capiz.

The problems with the billeting quarters loomed after the Paglaum Sports Complex, which is supposed to serve as another training and accommodation facility for the athletes, as abandoned by the Negros contingent because its electricity and water supply were disconnected due to unpaid bills.

The PSC, which was rehabilitated for the football competitions of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games in November and December last year, has remaining balances of P215,703.77 with the Bacolod City Water District and P381,419.99 with the Central Negros Electric Cooperative incurred from 1990 to 1995. The unpaid bills were registered in the account of the Negros Occidental Provincial Government because the Capitol only turned over the management of the sports complex to the Department of Education in 1995.

De Oro, who also spearheads the training staff of the Negros athletics squads, said that the volleyball teams are currently being billeted at the rooms under the grandstand, while the athletics players are accommodated at the cabanas around the Panaad.

He said that they are going to borrow sleeping mats from the Panaad management once all of the athletes arrive.

The NOPSSCEA-based athletes joining the Negros delegation for the regional meet will only train at Panaad and go home to their respective houses after the practices, he added. *CIT

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