ACTION goes into high gear after President Rodrigo Duterte attends the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Palarong Pambansa this Sunday at the Quirino Stadium in Bantay, Ilocos Sur.
Promising young athletes are expected to fight it out for glory at the the start of the 61st edition of this weeklong event for elementary and high school students.
Philippine Sports Commissioners Ramon Fernandez and Charles Maxey will be there to welcome President Duterte, along with local executives, led by Ilocos Sur Gov. Ryan Singson.
PSC chairman William Ramirez isn’t coming since he is in the United States at the moment, according to Fernandez.
Fernandez hopes that some exceptional athletes will come up with great performances during the weeklong meet.
“We’re hoping that some young athletes will step up to the plate,” he said.
Centerpiece events like track and field and swimming will again be among the events that are one tap.
Also calendared are events in archery, arnis, athletics, badminton, baseball, basketball, billiards, boxing, chess, football, futsal, gymnastics and sepak takraw.
Then, there’s softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball, wrestling and wushu. Other events include Aero gymnastics, dancesports and pencak silat were calendared as demonstration events.
Events for differently abled athletes are also included.
Athletes from the National Capital Region are expected to stand out.
The Big City bets won the overall crown last year with a medal haul of 98 golds, 66 silvers and 45 silvers. NCR got most of its medals in the secondary division with their 66-45-26 tally.
Region IV-A (Southern Tagalog) placed second overall with its 47-57-57 gold-silver-bronze haul, with Region VI(Western Visayas) in third (38-29-40).
Meanwhile, the Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost) will issue a set of personalized multi-sport special stamps in sheetlet form to mark the opening of the Palarong Pambansa (Filipino for “National Games”) to be participated by student-athletes from 17 regions in the country.
“We have decided to come up with postage stamps in order to feel the excitement and action of the sports in the Palarong Pambansa. Also, these postage stamps may somehow inspire people especially the youth to engage in physical education and learn the values inherent in sports”, Postmaster General Joel Otarra said.
PHLPost has printed limited copies of 1,000 generic sheets of four (4) P17 stamps with four (4) labels representing different sporting events which can be purchased at P150.00 per sheet. Another 4,000 pieces of the personalized sheets were printed which also contains four (4) P17 stamps with corresponding personalized labels valued at P150 per sheet.
Graphic artist Eunice Beatrix Dabu designed the special Palarong Pambansa stamps.