PSC Commissioner Ramon Fernandez yesterday said this is the time for sports-minded local government officials to pitch in and help national athletes and coaches gearing up for the 31st Southeast Asian Games to resume actual training.
“We have to think out of the box so this is what I thought of considering the limited funds the PSC has,” Fernandez, also the national team chief of mission to the 31st SEA Games, said in the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association online forum.
He said the Department of Budget and Management had approved P200 million for the regional meet, half for the training and the other half going to the country’s actual participation in the event set Nov. 21 to Dec. 3 in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi.
“This is why we have asked our NSAs to raise funds on their own and set up mini-bubbles with the help of local government units so they help their athletes to train with the SEA Games drawing near,” Fernandez added official in the public sports program supported by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., San Miguel, Milo, Go for Gold, Smart, Amelie Hotel and Braska Restaurant.
He said the PSC spent P21 million for the three-month bubble training of the country’s Olympic hopefuls in boxing, karate and taekwondo at the Inspire Academy in Calamba, Laguna “so we do not have enough funds for one bubble for the 39 sports training for the Vietnam SEA Games.”
Fernandez lauded the initiatives of some National Sports Associations that have shifted their actual workouts outside of Manila, among them the national teams of fencing, canoe-kayak and archery, which have set up their respective training camps last month in the provinces.
He added the PSC will give its endorsement once the NSAs have identified their training bubbles outside the NCR Plus area “since this undertaking is a joint venture among the NSAs, LGUs and the PSC.”
Fernandez said there are other LGUs that could accommodate the national athletes, citing the possibility of the cities of Zamboanga and Cebu for the weightlifting squad owing to the good facilities present there.
“Ilocos Norte where former Gintong Alay project director Michael Keon is the Laoag City mayor is another option,” he said.
