Dr. Francis Cesar Bringas talks to the media during the presser of the Palarong Pambansa MOA signing in Cebu City Hall. | Photo from Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Department of Education (DepEd) Assistant Secretary for Field Operations, Dr. Francis Cesar Bringas, has officially announced that the Pre-Qualifying Tournament of the Palarong Pambansa was only a one-time event.
Bringas said the holding of the Pre-Qualifying Tournament will no longer be included in this year’s Palaro that will be held in Cebu City.
READ: DepEd expects Cebu City’s ‘world-class’ hosting of Palarong Pambansa
“There will be no pre-qualifying meet moving forward. We only had the pre-qualifying meet because we were still on the medical health emergency because of the Covid-19 pandemic last year,” Bringas said during a presser on Friday, February 2, at the Cebu City Hall.
“We had to consider to cutting the number of delegates per region in the national Palarong Pambansa,” Bringas added.
Friday’s presser was held after the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement between Vice President Sara Duterte and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to seal Cebu City’s 2024 Palarong Pambansa hosting.
READ: 2024 Palarong Pambansa officially in Cebu City
Now that the country is free from medical health restrictions, Bringas said that DepEd has decided that the conduct of pre-qualifying tournament was no longer needed.
With this development, the 9,000 plus athletes who competed last year in Marikina City was expected to increase to more than double or an estimate of 20,000 in this year’s Palaro, according to both DepEd and Cebu City Sports Commission officials.
“Now that we’re passed through the medical emergency health situation last year, we will skip the pre-qualifying tournaments of Palarong Pambansa,” Bringas said.
To recall, DepEd officially introduced the Pre-Qualifying Tournament last year with the goal of filtering the participants of the national meet.
The Pre-Qualifying Tournament sets higher standards by changing the qualifying time in measured sports such as athletics and swimming. At the same time, only the top two teams per cluster will qualify for the main Palarong Pambansa.
Cebu City and Mandaue City co-hosted one of the cluster meets last June, a month before the Palarong Pambansa in Marikina City.
The conduct of the Pre-Qualifying Tournament cut the number of athletes who reached the qualifying time or measure of their respective sports, thus leaving only the best of the best on the field.