By Pigeon Lobien/Philippine News Agency
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The Cordillera Career Development College (CCDC) is ready to assume the hosting of the Baguio-Benguet Educational Athletic League (BBEAL), which is expected to be launched two months earlier than in 2018.
CCDC founding president James Malaya expressed eagerness in hosting the event in August for the 11 schools and is awaiting the turn over of last year’s host, the University of the Philippines-Baguio, as they prepare for the event for some 70,000 students.
Malaya told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday that the turn over would be on June 6 when UP makes its final report.
Malaya said they would “aggressively” work for a successful 33rd season where he wants a longer playing time especially for the centerpiece events of basketball and volleyball.
“Any member can host the BBEAL at any given time – wala namang maraming preparation na kailangan. Venue ng games lang naman ang importanteng tignan at saka ‘yung opening ceremonies,” he said.
Among the issues he wanted settled is not to set games at both the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and his school on the same day, as these areas are seven kilometers away from Baguio proper.
CCDC has its own gym like neighboring Benguet State University (BSU), the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), Saint Louis University (SLU), University of the Cordilleras (UC) and University of Baguio (UB). UP’s gym is expected to be finished by now.
Malaya expressed disappointment in the last two seasons when the number of games was reduced to practically half with a single round robin for two brackets.
Only nine of the 11 schools joined the men’s basketball, the most watched of the event, and was even overshadowed by women’s volleyball which got a full house.
Malaya said that he wanted to see a complete attendance for basketball wherein teams should run the full course of 10 games prior to the post season.
“We want to see all teams happy, with all teams meeting each other,” he said.
The other members of the BBEAL are King’s College of the Philippines (KCP) here and Baguio’s Pines City College (PCC), Baguio Central University (BCU) and Baguio College of Technology (BCT), which won the women’s volleyball crown.
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