Team Russia students watch their Lego robot climb a pole to fetch a brick placed on top during the competition on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010, at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City. (Photo by CANDICE REYES)

MANILA, Philippines — More than 1,200 contestants from 22 countries joined the 2010 World Robot Olympiad on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Convention Center in Pasay City despite organizers’ fears some of them may skip the event in the wake of travel advisories issued against the Philippines and the tourism jitters caused by the August 23 hostage crisis in Manila.

The winners in the competition will be awarded today at the Tent City of the historical landmark Manila Hotel where the College Robotics Exhibits would be held.

Ten teams, comprising 56 members, represented the Philippines in the Olympiad.

Hongkong, Taiwan, Indonesia and Russia, were among the countries that issued travel advisories against the Philippines in the aftermath of the August 23 hostage drama, but delegations from said countries still had their way to this year’s WRO.

Of the 1,200 foreign delegates, 53 came from China, 65 from Taipei, 37 from from Japan, 61 from Korea, 42 from Singapore, 9 from Hong kong, 38 from Indonesia, and 18 from Russia.

“Perfect attendance of participants from all the 22 countries only means that Philippines has been able to maintain its reputation as a safe and peaceful place despite the hostage drama, which was an isolated case. It shows that the Philippines is a safe place to be. It shows that most countries would rather ignore all this talk about advisories, which are inimical to the interest of the country. They would rather look at the positive things and not at the negative,” Department of Science and Technology (DoST) Spokesperson Director Raymund Liboro said.

The DoST, through the Science Eduction Institute (SEI), is the primary government agency behind the holding of the WRO in the Philippines.

DoST Undersecretary Fortunato dela Pena, chairman of the 2010 WRO Advisory Committee,.revealed that the travel advisories issued against the country had actually caused alarm on them and the event organizers.

“We were worried kasi yung [because] hostage crisis occurred in August and the first one who texted me, very worried, was Mylene Abiva (president/CEO of FELTA Multi-Media, Inc. and project director of the 2010 WRO), saying that we might have problems about participation,” he said.

“Fortunately, as it turned out, we still got the participating countries, all 22 of them, coming from all continents from Europe and Asia. Hong Kong is represented, China is represented, Taiwan is represented. And we have the representation from the bigger countries like Russia, India, Australia, Japan,” Dela Peña added.

In this year’s competition, participants were pitted against each other with their respective robots competing in playing traditional Filipino games.

Two categories were presented to be performed by participants from junior and senior high school: one technical and another which leaves more room for creativity.

In the junior high school category, competing robots played “Tumbang Preso.” Tumbang Preso is an outdoor game where the players’ goal is to hit a container being guarded by a prisoner and recover it before the guard captures them.

In the game, the robot was required to trace the tracked line from the starting point, cross a timed gate, knock down a bottle, secure and bring along a bottle to the finish line.

In the senior high school category, students were asked to rig their robots to play “Palo Sebo.” Palo Sebo is a game usually played in the Philippines during a town fiesta where the children climb a greased bamboo pole to get the flag at the end of every pole.

At the WRO, the robot is tasked to climb two poles and obtain a ball at the end of each pole.

The Olympiad is a global robotics competition where young people are pitted against each other on their robotic skills using Lego Robotics. Theme for this year is “Robotics Promote Tourism.”

The Philippines has won the right to host the competition having previously won two gold medals, two silvers and a bronze over seven years of competing in the WRO.