Joselito Jr. Gelilang 
Visayas State University (VSU) President Dr. Edgardo Tulin’s opening remarks displayed his appreciation to every student-athlete who participated in this year’s SCUAA Games.
He stated that through this event, an avenue was made in which an opportunity to establish growth and development of every athlete for the betterment of the world.
“It is indeed another season of celebrating sports in various sporting competitions, and most importantly, celebrating fun and camaraderie. It has been a well-established ideology amongst SCUAA members that the ultimate goal of this interschool competition is forging and building a better world through sports in the spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play,” Dr. Tulin stated.
He expressed that banig, the theme of this year’s SCUAA, does not only highlight the popularity of banig weaving here in our locality, but also signifies unity, strength, and camaraderie among every SUC from all around the region.
“In this year’s SCUAA events united in the theme, ‘Weaving Strengths, Hinabing Kusog,’ is likened to the world-famous “banig” of Samar and Leyte; and guided by Filipino, Bisaya, and Waray lexicons, “habi” or “hinabi” which means weaving or woven, and “kusog” which means strength or power,” phrased by the VSU President.
“It signifies that we are not just gathering through sports or about sports, but also comes in collectively working through weaving our strengths, discipline, camaraderie, and sportsmanship across all competitions in the next few days,” he added.
Besides sports, Dr. Tulin underscored that the practice of weaving can be somehow related to having a good life. He stated that for a person to achieve a comfortable life, he needs to endure the challenges and pressure of life.
“A good life is like weaving, energy is created the tension, the struggle, the pull, and the tug are everything, same as tensile strength a “buri” or palm leaves we use in the making of banigs, may we, SUCs, endure without breaking in subjecting to challenges and tension, and may we continuously interlock our strength created in the tension and weave together to provide quality and excellence,” he added.
