Palarong Pambansa is back: DepEd presents 'Pre-National Qualifying Meet' level
Palarong Pambansa, an annual multi-sport event joined by student athletes across the country, is officially back.
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday, Feb. 7, announced the conduct of the 2023 Palarong Pambansa from July 29 until Aug. 5, 2023 in Marikina City. This, after years of cancellation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Along with the event’s return, DepEd introduced a new tier called “Pre-National Qualifying Meet" to lessen the number of delegations, shorten the period of the event, prevent disruption of classes, and lower the expenses to be sustained.
“The new level will only feature team sports such as baseball, basketball, futsal, sepak takraw, football, and volleyball,” said the department in an official statement on Tuesday.

According to DepEd, all teams will be “clustered into four groups” based on their geographical location. Under the new tier, only two leading regional delegations per cluster will advance to the Palarong Pambansa event.
“ports that do not apply qualifying standards in the selection of athletes and are not identified as team sports will advance directly to Palarong Pambansa culminating competitions,” it furthered.
DepEd is set to issue additional and technical guidelines for all sports to be played.