With the bigger objective of involving Filipino women in sports, the Philippine Sports Commission is launching the sixth edition of the Women’s Martial Arts Festival on May 28 to 31 at the Harrison Plaza, Malate, Manila.
“We want to continue what we’ve started in last year’s edition, and that is engage with more than 1,600 women and children, playing sports and exercise their right to do so,” said PSC Commissioner Celia Kiram.
The martial arts festival is an initiative of the PSC, in support of Republic Act No. 9710, also known as the “Magna Carta of Women”, that spells out very woman’s right to equal participation in sports.
This includes measures to ensure that gender-based discrimination in competitive and non-competitive sports is removed so that women and girls can benefit from sports development.
“For this year, we will be featuring 10 sports namely, arnis, fencing, judo, karatedo, muay thai, pencak silat, taekwondo, wrestling and wushu,” added Kiram.
Further meetings and consultations with the 10 sports’ focal persons from the national sports associations are set this week in preparation for the upcoming event.