LAGAWE, IFUGAO – Traditional Ifugao sports and games take the spotlight as the Philippine Sports Commission holds its inaugural Gender and Development Indigenous Games at the Provincial Capitol Plaza here on Friday and Saturday.
Close to 450 boys and girls from six elementary and eight high schools in the province will see action in the two-day meet also known as the First Ifugao Indigenous Sportsfest backed by the Ifugao provincial government led by Gov. Pedro Maam-yo and the Lagawe city government headed by Mayor Caesario Cabiggat.
“We welcome the support of the PSC in trying to preserve our cultural and heritage by holding these two-day competition where we can showcase our tradional games,” said Maam-yo during a courtesy call of the PSC delegation led by commissioners Celia Kiram and Charles Maxey yesterday.
“This event a prelude of holding a bigger Indigenous Games throughout the Cordillera region,” said Kiram, who oversees the PSC’s grassroots sports development in Northern Luzon as well as its Women in Sports programs.
“Holding this competition in cooperation with the Ifugao provincial and Lagawe municipal government is in keeping with the PSC’s ‘Sports for All’ mandate because we are also trying to promote the awareness of traditional games throughout the country,” noted Maxey, who looks after the goverment sports agency’s engagement in ethnic sports.