PHILIPPINE Sports Commission Chairman Butch Ramirez will celebrate his 71st birthday today by signing a memorandum of agreement with Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia to build the P3.3 billion PSC national training center in the province.
To be accompanied by Commissioners Ramon Fernandez, Celia Kiram, Engr. Arnold Agustin and PSC national training director Marc Velasco, Ramirez will sign the MOA with Garcia within the Freeport Area in Mariveles.
Among those who will witness the signing rites is Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, the principal author of Republic Act 11214, otherwise known as the “Philippine Sports Training Center Act,” with an appropriation of P3.3 billion from the national budget. President Rodrigo Duterte signed the act into law on Feb. 14, 2019.
Under the law, the facility will be under the ownership, jurisdiction, supervision and maintenance of the PSC indefinitely, with a deputy executive director appointed to handle its daily operations.
In the agreement, the Bataan provincial government will donate a 25-hectare lot in Barangay Ibis in the seaside town of Bagac overlooking the West Philippine Sea for the national training center.
It promises to be a legacy project for Ramirez, one of the longest-serving officials of the government sports agency since being appointed as PSC commissioner in early 2000 during the term of the late PSC chief Butch Tuason.
The amiable Davao City native and former educator was also at the helm of the PSC from 2005 to 2009 before being re-appointed as PSC chairman by President Duterte immediately in 2016.
The PSC national training center is envisioned as a state-of-the art facility for national athletes and coaches, who will be in an ideal environment far away from the distractions and pollution of Metro Manila where the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and Philsports Complex in Pasig City are located.
A PSC insider said the construction of the national training center will most likely begin next year since its allocation is not included in the 2021 national budget.
Besides having a dormitory for coaches and athletes in the national pool, the facility will have training areas for athletics, aquatics (swimming and diving), arnis, archery, badminton, basketball, baseball, indoor volleyball and beach volleyball, billiards and snooker, bowling, boxing, chess;
Dancesport, fencing, floorball, football, futsal, handball, gymnastics, jiu-jitsu, judo, gymnastics, karate, lawn tennis, muay thai, pencak silat, petanque, rugby, sambo, shooting, softball, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
The national training center will have, among others, an Olympic-size 50-meter pool and diving pool, shooting range, velodrome, sports science building, weight training building plus its own mess and recreation halls, sports science building, medical and weight and meditation rooms.
Separate villas will also be built for visiting guests.
