Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas, former Department of Trade and Industry secretary, will be the keynote speaker during the opening ceremonies of the Western Visayas Regional Athletics Association Meet at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Villareal Stadium in Roxas City, Capiz.

Capiz Vice-governor Victor Tanco will introduce Roxas, who is the chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Committee on Trade and Commerce, at the opening rites.

Philippine Sports Commission chairman William "Butch" Ramirez has also been invited to give a message of encouragement to the student-athletes from Negros, Capiz, Aklan, Antique, Iloilo and Guimaras who will see action in the regional meet.

Meanwhile, 233 athletes and coaches will join the second batch of the Negros contingent that will leave Bacolod City today to compete in the school-based competitions.

Manuel De Oro, officer-in-charge of the Negros Occidental Provincial Sports and Development Office, will accompany the second batch, which will travel via Weesam Express at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. going to Iloilo City before proceeding to Roxas.

The first batch of the Negros contingent, composed of 197 athletes and coaches, left for Roxas Sunday. Nanette Roa of the Department of Education and Felipe Dumancas, DepEd Physical Education and School Sports head, accompanied the first batch.

The last batch of the Negros delegation, composed of 50 competitors and coaches, will leave Bacolod tomorrow.

The elementary players will vie for the championships in the boys and girls' divisions of athletics, badminton, baseball, chess, gymnastics, lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball, boys' football and sipa, and little league softball.

Lined up in the secondary level hostilities are the boys and girls' archery, athletics, chess, badminton, lawn tennis, gymnastics, table tennis, swimming, volleyball and taekwondo, girls' softball, and boys' basketball, baseball and boxing.

Negros is the defending overall champion in the secondary division, having brought home the crown in Iloilo last year, while the Ilonggos claimed the overall title in the elementary category. *CIT

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