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Monday, May 16, 2005
Palaro points system praised, criticized
By JADE S. VIOLETA
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
IN IT’S quest to make the overall championship title of the Palarong Pambansa a free-for-all race, the Department of Education (DepEd) drew an equal share of compliments and criticisms when it employed the points system in this year’s edition of the multi-event meet, which concluded Saturday in Iloilo City.
The system was last used in 1997 when the management of the Palaro was transferred from the then Department of Education Culture and Sports to the Philippine Sports Commission.
Instead of the gold, silver and bronze, the delegations fight for points in every event, where a gold medal in the individual competitions is worth seven points, a silver five points, a bronze four points, the fourth place three points, the fifth place two points and the seventh place one point.
In the team events, the points for every medal vary according to the number of athletes per team. In athletics’ team events, the gold medalist earns 14 points, the silver medallist 10 points and so forth.
In basketball, the champion team receives 25 points while the second and third placers get 15 and 10 points, respectively.
This system, though, drew flak from perennial titlist National Capital Region.
A parent of an NCR athlete, who requested anonymity, told Sun.Star Cebu that the system was used to dislodge NCR from the throne.
Victor Yntig, DepEd-7’s Assistant Regional Supervisor, said the points system was re-installed not to defeat NCR but to encourage the participation in ballgames and level the playing field.
“In a meeting in Baguio, we agreed on this (points system) in order to give the other regions a chance for the title and to avoid having a perennial champion. This gives an opportunity to all the regions,” said Vivian Giñete, Region 7 Physical Education and School Sports (Pess) chief.
Clyde Mariano, a sportswriter covering for a national daily, thinks the points system gives other delegations a chance to beat NCR.
“How can you beat NCR, which is really strong. They have all the training facilities,” said Mariano.
For Lito Oredo of Bandera, the system diminishes the value of the gold medal.
“How can that be fair when even if you get a gold you can still be outscored,” Oredo said. “For example, Region 7 gets the gold, but the next two spots go to NCR, then (NCR gets more points than Region 7 and) the gold’s value is lost.”
“In this system, less gold medals can even win the overall title. It doesn’t determine the real champion,” was the view of Peter Atencio of Manila Standard.
In the overall tally of the Iloilo Palaro NCR had the most number of points with 503.5.
(May 16, 2005 issue)
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