Harang-taga

Perhaps one of the most common games here in the Philippines, harang-taga or popularly known as patintero. It is also referred to as "tubigan" for the reason that the land area where this game is held is often poured off of water to draw line demarcations.

There are two groups in this game, the groups which will be the runners(bangon) and the other is the taggers(taya). For runners, their objective is to surpass all line demarcations from the starting area up to the end and then back to the starting area without having tapped or touched by the taggers in order to get one home run or score. For the taggers, they should prevent their opponent in getting back at the starting area and tap any of its members so that they can have their turn to be the runners. the game proper starts after the leader of the two opposing groups did a match in "Jack-en-Poy". Who wins will be the runners and the other will be the taggers.

I can still remember when I was a kid, we often play this game at night especially hen the moon shines brightly. We held the game at the middle of a dusty parcel of land beside anybody's home. Running as fast as each of us could, shouting to irritate the taggers and making some tactics to get a home run. Simple tip to win the game: be good in mocking up your opponents to surpass all of them.