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Palarong Pambansa

Logos of the Palarong Pambansa
Motto	Discipline, Teamwork, Excellence
First event	1948 as the BPISAA Games inManila, Philippines
Occur every	Annually
Last event	2025 inIlocos Norte
Next event	2026 inAgusan del Sur
Purpose	National multi-sporting event for Filipino student-athletes
Organized by	Department of Education
Website	palarongpambansa.deped.gov.ph

ThePalarong Pambansa (Filipino for "National Games") is an annual multi-sport event involving student-athletes from the differentregions of thePhilippines. The event which was known as theBPISAA Games from its inception in 1948 until 1973, is organized and governed by theDepartment 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 (NSA) for international competitions; and
• Provide a database for a valid and universal basis to further improve the school sports development programs.

The legal basis of the Palarong Pambansa is stipulated in the provision of the 1987Philippine Constitution, Article XIV, Section 19.

The first edition of the games was held inManila in 1948. Before it was called Palarong Pambansa, it was dubbed as Bureau of Public Schools-Interscholastic Athletics Association Games (BPISAA). It was hosted yearly only disrupted twice; in 1957 due to the death of PresidentRamon Magsaysay and in 1972 when PresidentFerdinand Marcos declaredmartial law. In 1973, the last BPISAA which was held inVigan,Ilocos Sur.^[1]

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 byMarikina.

In 1984, the games scheduled to be hosted inLaoag. However it was cancelled due to the1983 Luzon earthquake.Gintong Alay directorMichael 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 thePeople Power Revolution. The 1988 edition was known as the Palarong Paaralang Pambansa.^[2] There were plans to organize the games biannually to save funds but this was aborted by the organization of the 1989 games.^[3]

Misamis Oriental andNegros 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.^[4]

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.^[5] The point system which is used to rank teams as early as the 2005 edition^[6] 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.^[7]

The Palaro would be disrupted by theCOVID-19 pandemic which led to the cancellation of the2020 edition and the games not being held at all in 2021 and 2022. The games has returned with the hosting of the2023 edition inMarikina.^[8]

The regions participating in the annual Palarong Pambansa has become bigger as some regions have split. For instance, Southern Tagalog Regional Athletics Association (STRAA) 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 theCalabarzon region and Region 4-B or theMimaropa region. Both are taking part in Palarong Pambansa as different teams or regions.

Creation of administrative and autonomous regions such asBangsamoro (competing since the 2019 edition^[9]) andCordillera 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.

TheAutonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao has competed in the Palarong Pambansa from 1994 until 2018. It was succeeded by Bangsamoro.^[10] TheNegros Island Region (NIR) has also competed during its first iteration from in2016 and the2017 editions.^[11][12][13]

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.

A total of 34 sports disciplines, including the para-games, demonstrations, and exhibition sports.^[14]

It also features the Indigenous Filipino (Traditional) Games, also known as "Laro ng Lahi", the DepEd will conductKadang-kadang,Tumbang Preso, andPatintero on July 28, as of 2023.^[15]

1st, 12th 16th 18th 63rd class=notpageimage| Host cities of Palarong Pambansa in Metro Manila.

2nd, 31st 4th, 13th 5th, 43rd, 59th 6th, 24th, 61st 9th 11th, 41st, 55th 19th, 65th 21st 27th, 35th 36th 39th 46th, 49th 53rd 57th class=notpageimage| Host cities of Palarong Pambansa in Luzon.

51st class=notpageimage| Host cities of Palarong Pambansa in Palawan.

7th, 40th, 64th 8th, 37th, 48th 10th 15th 17th, 33rd, 52nd 23rd, 25th, 30th, 44th, 45th 56th 60th class=notpageimage| Host cities of Palarong Pambansa in Visayas.

3rd, 62nd 14th 20th, 38th 22nd 26th, 28th, 29th, 34th 32nd 42nd 47th 42nd, 50th 54th 58th 66th class=notpageimage| Host cities of Palarong Pambansa in Mindanao.

From as early as the 2005 edition to 2013, the point system is used to determine the rankings of the participating team.^[6][7] There is no comprehensive information for earlier editions of the games including the system officially in used.

The Palarong Pambansa was institutionalized through the Palarong Pambansa Act. With it the traditional ranking by medal count is used from the 2014 edition.^[7]

The following standings per region since the 2008 edition as per the Games and Results Documentation Committee.^[44] Do note that the standings until 2013 were determined using a points system rather than the number of medals.^[6][7]

• Batang Pinoy
• Philippine National Games

• Media related toPalarong Pambansa at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• Former website (2018)
• Former website
• 2015 Palarong Pambansa official websiteArchived April 15, 2015, atarchive.today
• Venues for Palarong Pambansa (1947-1992)

• Palarong Pambansa
• Student sports in the Philippines
• National multi-sport events
• Recurring sporting events established in 1948
• Multi-sport events in the Philippines
• National youth sports competitions
• 1948 establishments in the Philippines
• Annual sporting events in the Philippines
• Youth sports in the Philippines

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