Do you know that our lolos (grandfathers) and lolas (grandmothers) played low-cost, if not no cost at all, but nonetheless fun-filled games during their days of youth?

      Very much unlike in the present generation where the in-things are text-messaging, Internet chat, video games and slot machines which require some fortune or extra money to avail of them, the games of Lolo and Lola were often improvisations and less complicated. All it took them were a few scrap materials and a little imagination.

      My lolo told me that they had games and sports for various ages, for every change of season or weather condition, and for varied desired outcomes.

      "During summer when it's sunshiny all day, we used the kalye (street) as our sports center," Lolo Pianong reminisced. "Wala pang Araneta Coliseum, Ultra, Astrodome, Rizal Memorial, gymnasium noon. Naglalaro kami nang walang gastusan ng patintero, piko, tumbang preso, o taguang pong." (There were no Araneta Coliseum, Ultra, Astrodome, Rizal Memorial, gymnasium yet before. We played free of expense, patintero, piko, tumbang preso, or hide and seek.)

      True, patintero, for instance, only requires an improvised drawing of boxes and lines on the ground with the use of chalk, charcoal, or sand. The objective of a team is to accumulate as many points by crossing the lines without being tagged by the opposing team stepping on/ and moving along the lines only.

      "I posted the most number of points because your lola and her team could not tag me," Lolo Pianong bragged. "But later when we were of age already, she tagged me for an altar date."

      "Your lolo fell in love with me because I was the piko queen during our childhood days," Lola Juana countered. "Laging talo siya kaya napikon at niligawan ako para gumanti." (He always lost so he got peeved and courted me to exact vengeance.)

      The purpose of the game, I was told, is to win a place to call one's own. Every player has a pamato (hitting object such as a flat stone, a brick chip or any substitute flat and circular object). It is played within connecting box figures drawn on the floor with chalk or charcoal. The player throws the pamato inside each box, steps inside the other boxes, picks up the pamato, then step back to the base line.

      Another very common game when my lolo and lola were young is the tumbang preso. Equipment needed are an empty milk or sardine can and a slipper or piece of flat stone for pamato to hit the can. Nine participants form a circle, the taya, an "it" stands at center near the standing can, who quickly puts up the can when hit, then attempts to tag any of the nine players.

      According to my lola, a favorite indoor game of the girls is the sungka. It is played on a sungka board of solid wood carved like a shallow boat. At both ends of the board are large deep bowls and between them are seven pairs of shallower bowls. Each bowl contains seven pebbles or sigay (puka) shells, or dried fruit seeds. Two players start the game by simultaneously scooping up the pebbles in one of the shallow bowls and dropping a piece in each of the other bowls towards their assigned base. The player whose last pebble in hand falls in an empty bowl stops while the player whose last pebble drops in another bowl with contents scooping them up, and he or she is privileged to continue the process. When all the pebbles will have been deposited in the base bowls, the player with unfilled smaller bowls is the loser and is called nasunugan(burned).

      "While the girls delighted with the sungka, we boys preferred dama which is a board game," my lolo explained. "The simplest version is the board with only three pawns for each of the two players. They attempt to outmaneuver their pawns on a square board with four lines intersecting at dead center. The first one to form his pawns in a straight line wins. "Damais played at any instant because it requires very little preparation."

      There were a variety of hurdle games during my lolo and lola's childhood years. The luksong dangkal needs no material. The "it" simply sits down with his buttock on the floor and one leg is folded with the knee up. The players jump over. Next round, one hand with outstretched fingers is added on top of the knee, and the players jump again. The other hand follows next. The player who touches the obstacle becomes it or is eliminated. Other variations are luksong tinik (hurdle over a stick), luksong baka (hurdle over the back), luksong lubid (hurdle over a rope or jumping rope), and luksong bilangan (counted hurdle).

      My lolo was adept at playing the trumpo (top). It is an egg-shaped wooden carving with a metal tip where a yard-long cord is wound. The top is unleashed to the ground. The object of the game is to stop the target spinning top from a distance of 15 feet with the thrower's own top. If the target spins longer than the thrower's, the target's owner wins.

      Saranggolaan or kite flying was an all-time favorite during the yesteryears especially when the afternoon was breezy. Again, my lolo confided to me that when he was a gradeschooler, his favorite game after classes was the boka-boka, a frameless kite out of a sheet of pad or bond paper with two edges folded some two inches. "This was my way of disposing of my test papers with low marks," he laughed. The more artistic kite is the gurion.

      Some of the original Filipino games are still played during fiestas, school or organization anniversaries, and community celebrations like the Santacruzan in May. The more enduring fun games include pabitin (a hanging bamboo trellis with dangling goodies up for grabs by merrymakers), basag palayok (hitting the pot full of goodies), palo sebo(greasy bamboo pole climbing with a bounty at the peak), and basag itlog (breaking the egg).

      With the advent of electronics and computerization, these indigenous Filipino games have become seemingly out of this world and considered baduy or "low class" by the present generation. Ironically, some of these games have been adopted by other countries but the fact that these originated in the Philippines has been obliterated into oblivion.

      Perhaps only few of us know that the yoyo originated here in the Philippines. It started out as a hunting weapon by our forefathers to maim their animal prey. It was later reduced to size and became a toy for the youngsters.

      Our forefathers, too, had a number of martial arts that could compare with the Chinese Kung Fu, Japanese Judo, Korean Tae Kwon Do.

      The Filipino arnis has become so popular in other countries to the extent that the fact that it is an original Pinoy martial art has been almost forgotten. While arnis is recognized abroad as a global Filipino identity, it is hardly known or appreciated locally. Historical accounts have it that during the fateful Battle of Mactan on March 16, 1521, Filipino chieftain Lapulapu and his inferiorly equipped warriors used arnis aside with their kris to ward off the Spanish invaders led by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan. Further, trained in unarm combat, the native defenders pinned down the intruders within the use of dumog, a ground fighting or wrestling technique, to finish the standing battle.

      But hopes for the return to our indigenous games and sports have not been completely dashed.

      Every Sunday since June, 1998, the Philippine Indigenous Games and Sports Savers Association Incorporated, in a nationalistic effort to promote local games, has been conducting shows, competitions, exhibits, demonstrations, free instructional courses and clinics, in cooperation with the National Parks and Development Committee. Initial venue is the Agrifina Circle now called Teodoro F. Valencia Circle, at Rizal Park, from 1:00 to 6:00 P.M. Eventually the whole Rizal Park will be the playing area for indigenous games simultaneously being played.

      PIGSSAI (sounds like the vernacular for boil) president Engr. Jose Dion D. Diaz, Jr., who is Deputy General Manager for Infrastructure of the Philippine Tourism Authority, says that this non-government organization has forged ties with the Philippine Sports Commission, the Philippine Olympic Committee, Rotary Clubs, other government agencies like the PTA, DOT, and NPDC, and educational institutions in all levels. Itself affiliated with the Federation of Indigenous Games and Sports Association International, PIGSSAI's number of affiliates has snowballed to over 100 members affiliate clubs, federations, and schools.

      Diaz says that public response, including media, has been very heartening. In fact, no less than the Asusasyon ng Kumentarista at Anawnser ng Pilipinas, a national association of radio broadcasters, has recently bestowed PIGSSA the Millennium Award as the "Most Outstanding NGO 2000." Diaz, as president of PIGSSAI, accepted the Millennium Award "in recognition of his invaluable service and contribution to the total upliftment of the indigenous sports in the Philippines, thus contributing to its development."

      The movement has not only awakened national consciousness of indigenous games but also attracted even foreign martial enthusiasts. Actually, the Sunday exhibitions have the makings of a regular tourist attraction at the Rizal Park. It is seen to be a major step towards the promotion of Philippine Sports Tourism.

      Meanwhile, PIGSSAI is continuously doing research work and at the same time using multi-media to propagate indigenous games as an interesting aspect of Philippine heritage. In its list of Filipino indigenous games and sports, there are no less than 60 of them, together with 10 martial arts of Filipino origin, notably arnis, dumog, sikaran, Muslim-kuntaw, and JENDO.

      PIGSSAI's listing has been clustered into fiesta games, object games, foot games, palakasan (test of strength), pabilisan (test of speed), hurdle games, card games, street games, board games, finger games, and other unclassified ones.

      Most of these were played by my lolo and lola with hardly any expense at all, seemingly corroborating the axiom "the best things in life are free." So if you have no means to avail of a cellphone for text-messaging, computer for chatting, playstations and arcade games, why not return to the native indigenous games and sports?