BUGUIAS, Benguet October 09 – Gun enthusiasts still have sufficient time to join in the 1st Superintendent Jonathan G. Calixto Commander’s Cup shooting tournament that ends Sunday at the Camp Dennis Molintas, the headquarters of the Benguet Provincial Public Safety Company (BPPSC).
The two-day shootfest started Saturday with dozens of shooters flocking to the shooting range to join the bandwagon in the generation of resources intended for the purchase of basic search and rescue equipment for the local police force.
The 1st Commander’s Cup shooting tournament is a 5-stage course where a shooter needs around 115 rounds of ammunition to complete the prepared stages.
Superintendent Jonathan G. Calixto, BPPSC commanding officer, appealed to interested shooters to join in the remaining hours of the shootfest so that they will be able to contribute in the collective efforts to raise funds primarily for a purpose.
Winners of the tournament will be given surprise prizes by the organizers in order to inspire them to continue actively participating in similar shootfest that will be organized in Baguio and Benguet in the future.
Originally, the tournament was scheduled for September 26-27 but was rescheduled to October 3-4 and later slated for October 10-11 because of the onslaught of Tropical Storm Kabayan.
Calixto said that their experiences during the 26-day search, rescue and retrival operations in sitio Elizabeth, barangay Taneg in nearby Mankayan town prompted them to organize the fund raising event in order for them to be able to acquire sufficient basic search and rescue equipment beneficial for future use in case there will be similar events.
He said that the BPPSC will try to study the possibility of conducting the fund raising event regularly in order to fund other services that will be rendered by the company, especially their corporate social responsibility projects in case it has not been funded by the regular budget.