Indang, Cavite – Philippine Navy Cadets finished with 44 golds while the much bigger units of Army Warriors settled with 42 and the Air Force men managed 18 in the 2024 Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Games National Championships with the facilities in Cavite State University as the main venue.
The Army cadets have the most medals with 173 including 54 silvers and 77 bronzes compared to 89 for the Naval forces with the addition of 19 silvers and 26 bronzes. The Air Force gathered 84 medals on 18-27-39 gold-silver-bronze haul.
In the schools category, De La Salle University-Taft surged with 25 golds and three silvers mostly from swimming events followed by Rizal Technological University-Boni Campus with 16-17-11 tally and University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos with 6-6-4. Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation in Lucena City had 4-3-4 and Cebu Normal University at 5th with 4-2-2.
Completing the top 10 casts were Virgen Milagrosa in San Carlos City, Pangasinan in the sixth spot with similar 4-2-2 and Philippine State College of Aeronautics with 3-4-3. University of Baguio brought home a 3-2-4 tally and John B. Lacson of Bacolod City at 9th with 3-0-0. Taking the 10th spot was Polytechnic University of the Philippines with 2-3-1. Meanwhile, two shooters, one boxer and a kickboxer were discovered and were highly recommended for inclusion in the national training pool.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Francis Tolentino mentioned DLSU-Taft Navy’s gold medalists Danielle Benjamin Cruz, who scored 276 points and Dexter Belinda Cruz, who finished with 260 points to win the gold in the debuting sports discipline target shooting.
The annual competition, a brainchild of Tolentino, was held in coordination with the Department of National Defense (DND), The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) headed by chairman Richard Bachmann.
It is also held to encourage the development of sports programs, promote physical education and foster self-discipline, teamwork and excellence to cadets and intended to train young athletes and supplement the grassroots program.
“The aim is to train, motivate, organize and mobilize students for national defense preparedness, including disaster preparedness and capacity building for risk-related situations,” said Tolentino, a reservist in the Philippine Army Brigade Commander of 1501st Ready Reserve Brigade.
