Bago City in Negros Occidental, the hometown of boxing greats Roel and Mansueto Velasco Jr., is poised to become the regional training center to develop top-notch Filipino boxers, coaches, and officials.

Eyed for formal launch next month, the initiative will be formalized through a tripartite agreement among the Philippine Sports Commission, Bago City, and the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) as the national sports association.

“Earlier, we were doing a planning session. It’s very productive. We’re preparing for Bago City to be launched as a regional training center for boxing,” Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines (ABAP) president Marcus Manalo said in an interview posted by the city government Monday night.

Earlier in the day, the ABAP delegation led by Manalo, secretary general Sebastian Ripoll, and regional director Nonong Verdeflor met with Mayor Marina Javellana-Yao, who assured the national sports body of the city government’s full support for boxing development and facility modernization.

“Our discussion with the mayor mainly revolved on all the programs related to that, like the training center, competitions, and education programs for the boxers, coaches, and technical officials,” Manalo said.

He said they are extremely grateful to the mayor for the support, noting that Bago City has produced Olympic medalists, as well as Asian and Southeast Asian Games champions in boxing.

Roel Velasco is a bronze medalist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, while his younger brother, Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco Jr., bagged a silver in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

“We haven’t done this for some time in ABAP, and so this would be like first, for some time, to accredit coaches and technical officials,” Ripoll said. (PNA)