What Is the History of Physical Education in the Philippines?
In contemporary history, physical education in the Philippines developed into the Bureau of Physical Education and School Sports. The nation’s Executive Order No. 81 series of 1999 then integrated BPESS into the Philippine Sports Commission, which has since assumed BPESS’s departmental roles.
Before the foundation of either BPESS or PSC, the development of physical education in the Philippines was conducted by one of three staff bureaus within its Department of Education, Culture, and Sports. Referred to as DECS, the department began as the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports under the country’s Education Act of 1982. Sports organizations in the early 20th century were cultivated alongside educational programs that were simultaneously sponsored by the government, including the Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation and the Department of Public Instruction.
Passed in 1990, the Republic Act 6847 came to be known the Philippine Sports Commission Act upon its creation as a primary governmental sporting institution, and it continues to function with the Department of Education through collaborating in nationally accredited physical education programs. The Department of Education and the Philippine Sports Commission additionally cooperate in hosting annual sporting events such as the Paralong Pambansa, in which student athletes participate from around the nation.
