MANILA, 22 March — Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all, huh — Naga City or Tubod, Lanao del Norte?

Malacanang is set to pick soon the host city of the revived Palarong Pambansa, the country’s premier grassroots sports program tentatively set May 19-25.

Palarong Pambansa is traditionally the breeding ground of future national athletes.

But with Malacanang still undecided, preparations for the staging of the Palaro — shelved two years back because of budgetary constraints — are on hold.

Tubod and Naga City have yet to start preparations, raising speculations on the capability of either city to stage the nationwide sportsfest with barely two months left to work on the facilities, funding and manpower requirements.

Many fears both contenders are practically racing against time in their preparations to host the Games last staged two years ago in Bacolod City.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Eric Buhain said President Arroyo will have the final say on the venue of this year’s Games, and he is expecting her to decide “anytime soon.” Buhain had submitted to Malacanang reports prepared by a separate team, which conducted ocular inspections on Tubod and Naga City.

“I’ve already given the report to the president upon the instruction of Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo. Hopefully, by the end of the month, the president has already chosen the venue for the Palaro,” said Buhain.

The race to win the Palaro hosting rights has narrowed down to Naga City and Lanao del Norte, which are also both bidding to play host to the Southeast Asian Games in 2005. Naga, which last hosted the Games in 1997, earlier appeared to be the shoo-in as the Palaro venue after the PSC and the 16 regional physical education and school sports chiefs of the Department of Education (DepEd) endorsed the city’s bid, citing security concerns in Tubod.

The city’s bid is also reportedly being supported by Buhain himself, as well as Bicolanos in the Cabinet such as DepEd Secretary Raul Roco and Department of Budget and Management chief Emilia Boncodin, whose agencies play major roles in the Palaro. Roco’s DepEd runs the regional eliminations and provides the bulk of personnel while Boncodin provides the 46 million pesos needed for the Games.

But Tubod, which reportedly spent 500 million pesos to build a sports complex, had apparently embarked on a major lobbying to reiterate their desire to bring the Palaro to Mindanao after two postponements in the past.

Lanao del Norte Rep. Bobby Dimaporo had met with Buhain and Commissioner William Ramirez to reiterate their desire to stage the meet in Tubod, a week after Buhain went to Naga to conduct an inspection of the facilities. Buhain said Lanao del Norte officials led by Gov. Imelda Dimaporo and her husband, Rep. Dimaporo, are making representations with the president on the possibility of hosting the Games in Tubod.

“The Dimaporos and Mayor Jesse Robredo have agreed on letting the president make the decision,” Buhain said. “It’s a good thing that the PSC talked to the two bidders, specially to Tubod organizers since the government is trying to improve the image of Mindanao and the only way for Mindanao to change image is through sports.”

So president Arroyo is expected to make a “difficult” decision in choosing the host city for the summer multi-event sportsfest after two powerful political figures — Sec. Roco and Rep. Dimaporo — lobbied for the staging of the multi-event in their respective hometurfs. Although the PSC and the Department of Education have recommended Naga City to be awarded the hosting rights, this may not easily get the nod of the president because Dimaporo also revived Tubod’s bid to host the event since it was denied the right twice in the past. Dimaporo met with Buhain recently to convince the sports agency that Tubod is capable of hosting the Palaro.

Buhain, however, said the PSC would not change its position in recommending Naga City although he had already presented what Tubod’s proposal to the president.

“The president needs an unbiased report so the PSC would present her both sides of the story,” said Buhain. “I’ve personally visited Naga and commissioner (William “Butch”) Ramirez has been in Tubod many times and both of us came up with a report for the Chief Executive to use as basis.”

Like Roco, Buhain said he is inclined to bring the Games to Naga City mainly because 16 regional directors had voted in favor of Camarines Sur’s chartered city.

Bureau of Physical Education and School Sports Director Rolando Brillantes said regional directors are wary of the peace and order situation in Mindanao, although Ramirez gave the assurance this is not so.

“The peace and order in Mindanao is not an issue,” said Ramirez, engineer of the successful sports for peace program named as the Mindanao Friendship Games held in Tubod last year. “Mindanao is generally peaceful contrary to what others are saying. In fact, Tubod is even safer than Quiapo.”

Despite its recommendation, Buhain said the PSC would welcome the President’s final verdict. “If the president says it’s Tubod, then Tubod. If it’s Naga City, it’s Naga City.”

Earlier, sports commissioner Cynthia Carrion announced that president Arroyo had already chosen Tubod as host of this year’s Palaro. “She (Arroyo) wants it to be held this year because she believes the Palarong Pambansa is truly one of the best grassroots sports development program. And she also wants it to be staged in Lanao del Norte,’ Carrion had said. But Malacanang denied Carrion’s claim, saying President Arroyo is still evaluating proposals by Naga City and Tubod, and has never come up with her choice.