Creators of the Palarong Pambansa during the DECS era in the early 70s visualized a great athletic institution that they appropriately tailored fit for the Filipino in-school youths.
Today, as the Palaro brings its curtains down in Antique, there seems to be some odd thoughts lingering over the future of the now DepEd-organized athletic meet.
Despite some favorable media commentaries, we hear some discouraging remarks from delegations who begrudge the perpetual winning ways of athletes from the National Capital Region.
Every regional delegation, it appears, is only fighting for second honors as NCR players dominate every sports event there is in the Palaro calendar. Only Southern Tagalog and Western Visayas have come close to bringing down NCR’s strangle-hold on the Palaro diadem annually. How and why this has become to be a “tradition’ of sorts, DepEd officials must explain satisfactorily.
We know for a fact that recruitment is the trade secret, if not the culprit.
Many schools in Metro Manila offer athletic scholarships to regional players who display national potential and exploit their sporting talents in the prestigious NCAA or UAAP wars.
Parents, who are not financially equipped and zealous about their children’s academic future, seize the opportunity to make sure their son or daughter gets to finish his/her schooling and move on to clinch a college degree by way of sports.
Based on my decades-long of Palaro coverage, DepEd officials just cannot come up with the right answers. They are not helpless nor downright ignorant. They merely look the other way.
Shouldn’t they be making appropriate rules about recruitment in a bid to level the playing field which is reasonably what sports competitions are all about?
Usually, recruiters and scouting coaches from NCR schools train their binoculars on elementary grade athletes who immediately display their alacrity in such events as athletics, swimming, chess, tennis, Little League (children’s) baseball, softball, volleyball, table tennis, etc. We know that athletes with strong potentials usually display their prowess as early as their formative years.
Palaro brains should ideally roll out new rules about this sad situation so that the original concept of making the student games the genuine spawning ground of outstanding young players may be achieved. Regional participation must be strengthened by strengthening their composition.
The rotational hosting of the national student games is already well-established. However, transport problems among regional delegations are sometimes cropping up.
In Region 12 last year, parents of athletes taking part in the Palaro hosted by Albay protested why small vans, instead of big buses, were used by Reg. 12 DepEd bosses. Parents claimed that buses were steadier and more stable for a long drive than the vans which did not carry insurance packages for the passengers. It was good nobody got injured in an accident. (The Caranglan, Nueva Ecija bus accident where 33 passengers died comes to mind.)
Parents were silently whispering that somebody might have gone laughing all the way to the bank.
Be that as it may, Palaro policy-makers should henceforth issue a uniformed official circular that student-athlete participants must be comfortably bused and ably protected when travelling to and from the Palaro venue.
We raise our hats off to Antiquenos who warmly received the more than 5,000 athletes, coaches and parents in San Jose de Buenavista, site of the sports festival.
Despite a relatively light experience in hosting national events of this magnitude, Antique officials and the citizenry were united in ensuring the visitors would not be disappointed with their innate hospitality. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
