DAVAO CITY -- Olmpics boxing medalist Mansueto "Onyok" Velasco and Philippine Sports Commission Commissioner (PSC) Charles Raymond A. Maxey will grace the opening rites of the PSC-Pacquiao Amateur Boxing Cup Mindanao quarterfinals set at 2 p.m. today at the Kidapawan City Gym.
Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista will also be on hand to welcome delegates from Davao City, Cagayan de Oro City, General Santos City, Sarangani, Malaybalay, Digos City, Sultan Kudarat, Koronadal City and Polomolok, South Cotabato.
The PSC-Pacquaio Amateur Boxing Cup is a joint nationwide grassroots boxing program of the PSC and Senator Manny Pacquiao in coordination with the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) and Amateur Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (Abap).
PSC chairman William "Butch" Ramirez earlier said that the tournament, which will also have stops in Luzon and the Visayas, aims to discover promising amateur boxing talents in the countryside as directed to him by President Rodrigo R. Duterte when he returned as chief anew of the national sports agency last July 2016.
The PSC-Pacquaio Amateur Boxing Cup will have 12 stops including Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao preliminaries, quarterfinals semifinals and finals.
All medalists in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao finals will earn berths to the national championship that will again have another set of preliminaries, quarterfinals and semifinals en-route to the national finals that will be held on May 5 in General Santos City where the program kicked off last December 2017. (PSC-PSI)
