page_title: Culture of the Philippines
section_title: Sports
hierarchical_section_title: Culture of the Philippines / Sports
caption_attribution_description: English: Image of the Smart Araneta Coliseum during the Barangay Ginebra-Petron Blaze semifinal game for the 2012 PBA Governors Cup.
context_page_description: The culture of the Philippines is a combination of cultures of the East and West. Filipino identity was created primarily as a result of pre-colonial cultures, colonial influences and foreign traders intermixing and gradually evolving together. In pre-colonial times, the Philippines was a divided set of nations, islands and tribes being ruled by their own kings, chieftains, lakans, rajahs, datus and sultans. Every nation has its own identity and some are even part of a larger empire outside of what is now the Philippines. Manila, for example, was once part of the Islamic Sultanate of Brunei, and the Sulu Archipelago was also part of the Hindu Majapahit. The advent of colonial rule in the islands marked the beginning of the Philippines as an entity, a collection of Southeast Asian countries united under Spanish Empire.
  Chinese influence has been felt throughout Southeast Asia through trade, specifically by the Ming dynasty and other earlier dynasties from as early as the 9th century. The blending of indigenous, colonial and external influence is very evident in the historic arts and traditions of the country.
context_section_description: Arnis, a form of martial arts, is the national sport in the Philippines. Among the most popular sports include basketball, boxing, football, billiards, chess, ten-pin bowling, volleyball, horse racing, Sepak Takraw and cockfighting. Dodgeball, badminton and Tennis are also popular.
  Filipinos have gained international success in sports. These are boxing, football, billiards, ten-pin bowling, and chess. Popular sport stars include Manny Pacquiao, Flash Elorde, and Francisco Guilledo in boxing, Paulino Alcántara in football, Carlos Loyzaga, Robert Jaworski, and Ramon Fernandez in basketball, Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante in billiards, Rafael Nepomuceno in ten-pin bowling, Eugene Torre and Renato Naranja in chess, and Mark Muñoz in MMA.  The Philippine National Basketball Team is a powerhouse in Asia and has the best performance of all Asian teams in the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup.
  The Palarong Pambansa, a national sports festival, has its origin in an annual sporting meet of public schools that started in 1948. Private schools and universities eventually joined the national event, which became known as the "Palarong Pambansa" in 1976. It serves as a national Olympic Games for students, competing at school and national level contests. The year 2002 event included football, golf, archery, badminton, baseball, chess, gymnastics, tennis, softball, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, track and field, and volleyball.
caption: A PBA game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
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