Palaro to celebrate Rizal, other events

MANILA, Philippines - The 2011 Palarong Pambansa scheduled May 8-14 in Dapitan City will be celebrating five significant events in the history of Philippine sports.

 Former congressman Romy Jalosjos, chairman of the organizing committee, said this year’s Games will be held to commemorate the 100th year of organized sports in the country, the 150th birth anniversary of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal, the four years that he was exiled in Dapitan and the 115th year of his death.

“We hold the staging of the Palaro in Dapitan, acknowledged as the ‘Shrine City’ of the Philippines, very meaningful in the sense that we will also be enshrining school sports in the mind of our people, especially the youth who are not aware of the rich tradition of the Palaro and the Filipino athletes’ heroics in the international sports arena,” Jalosjos said during Friday’s SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session.

“The 2011 Palarong Pambansa will also be an occasion for the launching of the Renaissance of Dr. Rizal, to re-enshrine him in his rightful place in the consciousness of the youth today,” he said.

“ I am leading the people of Dapitan and Zamboanga Peninsula in inviting you to witness the 2011 Palaro and experience the hospitality of the Dapiteños, enjoy the historical exoticity and tourism scenery of the land where Dr. Rizal once walked, worked, played and romanced, he said in reference to Rizal’s four-year exile in the city before his execution from 1892 to 1896.

Dr. Rizal was born June 19, 1861 in Calamba, Laguna and died by musketry at the Luneta on Dec. 30, 1896.