Palarong Pambansa
The Palarong Pambansa is an annual multi-sport event involving student-athletes from the different regions of the Philippines. The event which was known as the BPISAA Games from its inception in 1948 until 1973, is organized and governed by the Department of Education.
Student-athletes from public and private schools at elementary and secondary levels can compete, provided they qualified by winning at their regional meet. For young Filipino student-athletes, Palarong Pambansa is the culmination of school sports competition, which start with local school intramurals, followed by the congressional district, provincial, and regional athletic meets.
The objectives of Palaro are:
- To promote physical education and sports as an integral part of the basic education curriculum for holistic development of the youth;
- Inculcate the spirit of discipline, teamwork, excellence, fair play, solidarity, sportsmanship, and other values inherent in sports;
- Promote and achieve peace by means of sports;
- Widen the base for talent identification, selection, recruitment, training, and exposure of elementary pupils and secondary students to serve as a feeder to the National Sports Association for international competitions; and
- Provide a database for a valid and universal basis to further improve the school sports development programs.
[ File:Palarong_Pambansa_(Marikina;_2023-07-31)_E911a_26.jpg|thumb|Student-athletes at the 63rd Palarong Pambansa in 2023]
History
BPISAA Games (1948–1973)
The first edition of the games was held in Manila in 1948. Before it was called Palarong Pambansa, it was dubbed as Bureau of Public Schools-Interscholastic Athletics Association Games. It was hosted yearly only disrupted twice; in 1957 due to the death of President Ramon Magsaysay and in 1972 when President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. In 1973, the last BPISAA which was held in Vigan, Ilocos Sur.Palarong Pambansa (1974–present)
In 1974, the Bureau of Public Schools-Interscholastic Athletics Association Games was renamed Palarong Pambansa.The 1980 Palarong Pambansa was not conducted was substituted with another tournament called Palarong Bagong Lipunan hosted by Marikina.
In 1984, the games scheduled to be hosted in Laoag. However it was cancelled due to the 1983 Luzon earthquake. Gintong Alay director Michael Keon organized the Palarong Pilipino in Manila in place of the cancelled games in the same year. The games was not be held until 1988, or two years after the People Power Revolution. The 1988 edition was known as the Palarong Paaralang Pambansa. There were plans to organize the games biannually to save funds but this was aborted by the organization of the 1989 games.
Misamis Oriental and Negros Occidental have hosted Palarong Pambansa four times each, more than any other provinces. Misamis Oriental hosted the Palarong Pambansa in 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1988. Negros Occidental hosted the games in 1974, 1979, 1998 and 2000. Lingayen, Pangasinan has hosted three times, in 1959, 1999 and 2012.
Institutionalized Palarong Pambansa
Starting with the 2015 edition of the games, the Palarong Pambansa Board, which was created due to the Palarong Pambansa Law signed in May 2014, shall be mainly responsible for the preparation and conduct of the games. The board shall be the main policy-making and coordinating body of the annual tournament. The point system which is used to rank teams as early as the 2005 edition was scapped for the 2014 edition. From the 2014 edition, the General Olympic Medal System is used where the number of medals with priority to gold medals is devised to determine team rankings.The Palaro would be disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the cancellation of the 2020 edition and the games not being held at all in 2021 and 2022. The games has returned with the hosting of the 2023 edition in Marikina.
Participating teams
The regions participating in the annual Palarong Pambansa has become bigger as some regions have split. For instance, Southern Tagalog Regional Athletics Association represented the 10 provinces of Southern Tagalog in the later Palarong Pambansa. But it was divided into two, which is now Region 4-A or the Calabarzon region and Region 4-B or the Mimaropa region. Both are taking part in Palarong Pambansa as different teams or regions.Creation of administrative and autonomous regions such as Bangsamoro and Cordillera Administrative Region and splitting of big region into new regions like the Southern Mindanao, Central Visayas and Western Visayas causes more teams. All these reasons made the 18 regions participating in Palarong Pambansa.
The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has competed in the Palarong Pambansa from 1994 until 2018. It was succeeded by Bangsamoro. The Negros Island Region has also competed during its first iteration from in 2016 and the 2017 editions.
A color coding system was introduced to uniquely identify each region based on their designated colors. Here are the participating regions with their assigned colors.
Sports
A total of 34 sports disciplines, including the para-games, demonstrations, and exhibition sports.It also features the Indigenous Filipino Games, also known as "Laro ng Lahi", the DepEd will conduct Kadang-kadang, Tumbang Preso, and Patintero on July 28, as of 2023.
Editions
Palarong Pambansa (1974–present)
Palaro under the Point System (2005–2013)
From as early as the 2005 edition to 2013, the point system is used to determine the rankings of the participating team. There is no comprehensive information for earlier editions of the games including the system officially in used.Palaro under the General Olympic Medal System (2014–present)
The Palarong Pambansa was institutionalized through the Palarong Pambansa Act. With it the traditional ranking by medal count is used from the 2014 edition.Note:1 Hosting of Palarong Pambansa is from Luzon and then Visayas and then back to Luzon and then Mindanao. This order will be repeated. If Visayas have no bids to host the Palaro, then Mindanao will have the rights to host and/or vice versa. If Luzon have no bids, Metro Manila will be going to host the Palaro.2 Negros Island Region is a newly created region in 2015 which consists of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental. Any existing previous list and records should be counted for the previous regions they are affiliated with otherwise, their records and statistics should be counted for their present region at the time of their creation unless otherwise specified.3 The original host was in Occidental Mindoro, but was forced to back-out due to damages brought to the province by Typhoon Tisoy.4After the withdrawal of Occidental Mindoro as hosts, Marikina replaced as host city for 2020, but the 2020 Palaro was cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic in the Philippines. However, DepEd has announced that Marikina will retain hosting rights for the 2023 edition of the event, with Cebu City and Laoag's hosting moved to 2024 and 2025, respectively.