Starting this year, the Philippine Sports Commission will be involved in the preparations of the Palarong Pambansa.
The government sports agency has been tasked to help the Department of Education in the management, officiating and other technical matters that are part of the operations of the annual school sports meet for the elementary and secondary level.
Technical officials will replace school teachers in handling the many events of the Palaro when it gets going from April 28 to May 4 in Davao City.
“Sa officiating at sa management. So hindi lang sa DepEd (Department of Education) ito. Kasama na kami sa Palarong Pambansa, sa preparation,” said PSC Chairman William Ramirez.
The move to let the PSC get more involved in the running of the games of the Palarong Pambansa was forged last November following a meeting with DepEd assistant secretary Revsee Escobedo, who replaced Tonisito Umali as its General Secretary.
Ramirez said the face of the country’s grassroots development program will change because of this development.
So far, construction of an P8-billion Davao City-University of the Philippines Sports Complex is now 80% complete, now being readied for the Palarong Pambansa.
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio made this possible after she signed last Jan. 10 the memorandum of agreement between the city government and UP, through its president, Danilo L. Concepcion.
The Davao-UP Sports Complex is located in a 20-hectare area of the UP Mindanao complex in Mintal.
Ramirez explained that with the partnership with the DepEd, they have synchronized the staging of the Batang Pinoy to be held right before the Palarong Pambansa in the coming years.
Under the new program of the PSC, outstanding athletes of the Palarong Pambansa will undergo training camps in the future.
This means that medallists of the Palarong Pambansa will have a chance to train with selected and certified coaches provided by the national sports associations.