PSC holds 3-leg Indigenous People’s Games

Photo: PSC Commissioner Fritz Gaston (left) poses with newly crowned WBC minimumweight champion Melvin Jarusalem and manager JC Mananquil.

The Philippine Sports Commission will hold three regional legs of the Indigenous Peoples (IP) Games this year, beginning with the Luzon leg in Salcedo, Ilocos Sur, on April 19 and 20.

“We want to hold the Games in regions na madaming tribes,¨said PSC commissioner Fritz Gaston during yesterday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

The IP Games made a successful comeback last year in Palawan after being shelved during the pandemic. Aside from the Ilocos leg, the PSC, through Gaston, is also eyeing stops in Bacolod in the Visayas and General Santos City in Mindanao.

“Naputol kasi ito during the pandemic, and we said Hindi dapat ito Maputo,” added Gaston during the weekly forum presented by San Miguel Corporation, PSC, Philippine Olympic Committee, PLDT/Smart, MILO, and ArenaPlus, the leading sports entertainment gateway in the Philippines.

“If you look at it, madaming events here (indigenous sports) that are being played in the Olympics like ‘yung version nila ng javelin and archery,” added the former professional basketball player, who was joined by his executive assistant Elias Samorin.

The PSC has held the IP Games since 2018 as part of its mandate to showcase and preserve traditional and indigenous sports like pana, sumpit, kadang-kadang, trumpo, and javelin.

Part of each led is an IP Forum, a public discussion on the importance of IP communities and the need to promote the culture among the younger generation.

“We expect to see more participants this year, with over a thousand for all the legs. We might even have an additional leg for Bangsamoro,” said Gaston, who cited the full support from Ilocos Sur Gov. Jeremias “Jerry” Singson and Salcedo Mayor Ninya Grazielle Gironella-Itchon.