By Peter Atencio
After getting shelved for almost three years, the Palarong Pambansa is coming back and will have a new look when it commences in five months’ time.
Officials of the Department of Education on Tuesday said they will hold the 2023 Palarong Pambansa from July 29 to August 5, 2023 in Marikina City.
The lockdowns beginning in March 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, forced organizers to cancel its staging that year, in 2021 and 2022.
Before the Palarong Pambansa was called off in 2020, competitions were usually held in the last week of May or in the first week of April.
The staging of the Palaro is now being discussed by the local government unit of Marikina City, DepEd-National Capital Region Office, and the Schools Division Office.
Organizers have set the Division Meets and Regional Meets to be done from February 6 to 10, and from April 24 to 28, respectively.
Palaro officials are also introducing the Pre-National Qualifying Meet, which will lessen the number of delegates, shorten the duration of the event and lower the expenses to be incurred.
Deped officials said this will be done “without sacrificing the level of play.”
Competitions in team sports will include baseball, basketball, football, futsal, sepak takraw, football, and volleyball.
Under a new format, delegations will be clustered into four groups of qualifying meets based on their geographical location.
There will now be Cluster 1, which is comprised of the Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Cluster 2 will have CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, NCR, and Bicol Region.
Cluster 3 includes Western, Central, and Eastern Visayas and Zamboanga Peninsula Region.
Cluster 4 is composed of Northern Mindanao, Davao, SOCCKSARGEN, CARAGA, and BARMM.
The top two regional delegations per cluster will then advance to the actual Palarong Pambansa event.
The modified competition format aims to prevent the disruption of classes and to observe minimum public health and safety protocols as stated in DepEd Order No. 34, s. 2022, and other relevant policies and guidelines issued.
Measurable sports such as athletics, swimming, and archery will adopt the qualifying distance, time, and points set by the Palarong Pambansa.
Other sports that do not utilize qualifying standards in the selection of athletes and are not identified as team sports will advance directly to the Palarong Pambansa’s national finals.