Lingayen, Pangasinan—After successfully hosting the Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) national games in the tertiary level from Feb. 6 to 11,  PRISAA Region 1 is keen on hosting anew separate PRISAA national games in the secondary level next year.
           
Dr. Gonzalo T. Duque, PRISAA Region 1 president and also president of the Dagupan-based Lyceum-Northwestern University, said he has filed a bid before the PRISAA national board headed by its chairman Dr. Emmanuel Angeles, for Region I to host again the PRISAA national games in the secondary level.
           
 “It’s up for the national board to decide it (PRISAA Region 1’s bid). But for the holding of the PRISAA national games in the secondary level, the board already gave its imprimatur to it,” he said. 
           
This is separate from the PRISAA national games for collegiate students whose next host is likely Iloilo City in Western Visayas, the champion in the recently concluded meet. It was their second straight win after last year’s edition of the games played in Zamboanga City.
           
“We are now going to the secondary national games because we need to fish out fresh young blood before they go to college and compete there,” he said.
         
 Duque added that his bid for Region 1 to host next year’s PRISAA national games in the secondary level was backed up by PRISAA Region X1 through its president Pedro San Jose, vice president for academic affairs of University of Mindanao.
          
 He said that per instruction of PRISAA chairman Angeles, the association will now also hold regional competitions in the elementary school level, a sign that PRISAA is now preparing for the private sector’s version of the Palarong Pambansa, which is being participated only by students from public schools.
              
 “We (in the PRISAA national board) have really decided to have private sector national games similar to the Palarong Pambansa, although this will be in the future. And we are experimenting it with the national PRISAA secondary meet next year,” Duque said.
            
He said the main reason why the Palarong Pambansa for the private sector could not be realized in the past was because many venues could not accommodate all levels at one time.
               
But Pangasinan can accommodate all the athletes from the three scholastic levels at the same time. The province has its Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center which was built during the administration of President Fidel Ramos as venue for the Palarong Pambansa in 1995.
      
   
Dagupan City has an Olympic-size swimming pool which was built and formerly owned by the Philippine Tourism Authority which it eventually turned over to the city government.  
     
   
 At the same time, Duque said that because of the success of the just concluded PRISAA national games in Pangasinan, many private schools have expressed interest to join PRISAA. He said those schools that withdrew from the PRISAA before are now coming back and this augurs well for the association.

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