THE Philippine Sports Commission yesterday approved to fund the bubble training of various National Sports Associations for their remaining international commitments this year and in 2022 if they meet certain conditions.
Shortly after the virtual meeting of the five-man board led by Chairman Butch Ramirez, Commissioner Ramon Fernandez said the bubble training of the NSAs will be funded if they have cleared their books with the PSC.
“They must also secure permission from the Inter-Agency Task Force in charge of the COVID-19 pandemic to conduct the actual workouts and the local government units where the bubble training will be held,” Fernandez said.
Among the first NSA whose funding was approved was the national canoe kayak and dragon boat squads, which have shifted their training venue to Tacloban, Leyte through the support of Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez.
Fernandez said funds will come from the P200 million released by the Department of Budget and Management to the government sports agency for the country’s participation in the 31st Vietnam Southeast Asian Games.
He added the remaining 38 NSAs whose athletes are gearing up for the Vietnam Games, originally set Nov. 21 to Dec. 2 in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, can also avail of the funds for their respective training bubbles if they have settled their accounts with the PSC and have received IATF approval.
Vietnamese organizers decided last June to reschedule the biennial games to next year in the wake of the rising cases of COVID-19 across the Southeast Asian region.
The PSC is expected to ask more money from Congress for the country’s other major international engagements next year, like the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China and Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Thailand in 2021.
This is in the wake of the agency’s drastically reduced monthly remittances from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. for its National Sports Development Fund with the limited operations of gambling casinos throughout the country.
The NSDF is the main source of the allowances of the coaches and athletes in the national pool.
Given the country’s most successful Olympic campaign in Tokyo that saw Pinoy campaigners return home with one gold, two silver and one bronze medals, Ramirez said he would request P3 billion for the PSC’s allocation in the 2022 national budget to sustain the gains from the meet.
