THE Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday announced that Pangasinan will be the host of the 2012 Palarong Pambansa.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro said Pangasinan was chosen after a tedious selection process conducted by the Palaro technical committee.

“In terms of sports facilities, billeting and others, the top contender for us as discussed in the group and validated by individual scores that each of the deliberators gave, we would like to congratulate the province of Pangasinan for winning the hosting of Palaro 2012,” Luistro said.

The DepEd will formalize the agreement with Pangasinan officials in a memorandum of agreement which will be signed by both camps in the next two weeks.

“As an overall assessment of the three bids, we are very, very happy to announce that all three presented themselves as very ready for Palaro 2012. If it is possible, we would have three hosts for Palaro, but since that is not possible, the committee had to choose one with the hope that the other two can offer their facilities and organization in the future,” said Luistro.

Pangasinan already hosted the Palaro in 1995, also at the Narciso Ramos Sports Complex in Lingayen. Dagupan City was a major co-host that year.

Other bidders for the 2012 Palaro whom Luistro thanked for their presentations were Marikina and Laguna.

The Palarong Pambansa is an annual multisport event participated in by more than 10,000 student-athletes representing all of the country’s regions.

It is a scholastic athletic competition that serves as a means to promote physical education and sports as an integral part of the basic education curriculum and as an affirmation to the school’s commitment to the full development of the great potentials of the youth to become responsible and globally competitive citizens of the nation.