TACLOBAN CITY – Eleven State Colleges and Universities from all over Eastern Visayas are now competing in this year’s State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association (SCUAA) Meet held at the Eastern Visayas State University and the Tacloban sports complex.

The games, which started on October 24 and will culminate on Saturday, October 29, is being participated in by the University of Eastern Philippines (UEP), Tiburcio Tancinco Memorial Institute of Technology (TTMIST), Samar State University (SSU), Eastern Samar State University (ESSU), Leyte Normal University (LNU), Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU), Leyte State University (LSU), Naval Institute of Technology (NIT), Palompon Institute of Technology (PIT), Southern Leyte State University (SLSU), and the SCAF in San Jorge, Samar.

The major games include basketball, volleyball, football, baseball and soft ball, while the minor games are badminton (men and women), sepak takraw and lawn tennis, among others.

Director Perla Figer, the overall sports coordinator of the SCUAA Meet, disclosed that the games being played in the competition were just selected because of the austerity measures being observed by the region.

“We are trying our best to finish all the games o-n the 29 th of this month so that the delegates will have time to get back to their respective hometowns for the celebration of the All Souls Day this coming November 2. Also, to allow them to enroll as enrollment is already ongoing in some of these institutions,” Figer said.

The delegates, expect those from LNU, are housed in the different buildings of EVSU. TTMIST and SSU, the Technology Education Building; SLSU, the Testing Lab; PIT and NIT, the Science Building; LSU, the Graduate Studies Building; UEP, the Academic Building; and EVSU, the Gabaldon building.

“Foods are served at the EVSU cafeteria for the teachers, maintenance, and rescue team, monitoring team of the Air Force and the Civicom. Assistance was also sought maintenance of the peace and order in the area,” Figer said.

She further told Leyte Samar Daily Express that a curfew is being imposed on all the athletes and officials for security reasons. Curfew hour for the athletes is 8:00 p.m. and for officials, 10:00 p.m. “Whenever they go out they are required to bring along with them their IDs and to ask passes from their coaches and sports directors for the monitoring of their whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Figer stressed that there was no registration fee that was paid by the delegates but they had the so-called PASUC (Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges) gate contribution to augment the expenses of the affair. Some 20, 000 pesos was the contribution by the entire institutions that are participating in the event.