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Tuesday, July 18, 2006
PSC tightens belt
By Marian C. Baring
Sun.Star Correspondent
Despite the small budget allocated by the Government for the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Chairman William “Butch” Ramirez guarantees that preparations of the athletes for the Doha, Qatar Asian Games will not be affected.
When the 2005 budget was not reenacted, the commission only received P28-million that they will have to make do with this year. PSC received P104 million last year.
"Unfortunately, that budget is only enough to pay for the regular employees of PSC," Ramirez said.
With the limited resources that PSC is trying to manage, some things will need to be sacrificed, such as helping only legitimate athletes and legitimate competitions.
"We will be financially supporting those athletes competing in events like the Olympiad, Asian Games or SEA Games. For national competitions, the NSAs will have to take care of it themselves. Mutabang nalang mi og ginagmay," Ramirez said.
Lifeblood
Ramirez said the commission's lifeblood right now are the funds that they receive from Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., through the National Sports Development Fund.
"Through that we are able to provide the allowances of our national athletes and we have in fact already set aside budget for our athletes competing in the Asian Games in December," Ramirez said.
As of the moment, some athletes are already dispatched to other countries for trainings, while the secretariat and monitoring of athletes are already in place.
Athletes in diving, fencing, taekwondo and wushu are already scattered around Mongolia, China and South Korea to undergo training in their respective fields, while other groups are expected to fly to the United States soon.
"We have shouldered the players' plane fares and allowances," said Ramirez.
The athletes' stay will be shouldered by the nations hosting them.
Best athletes only
This kind of treaty between the Philippines and the other countries started in last year's preparation for the SEA Games, where China agreed to assist Filipino players. They are allowed to train with China's national teams.
For the Asiad, PSC is setting aside P30 million, which will cover the delegation's allowances, uniforms and other requirements.
PSC is targeting to send only 149 athletes at most since it is the only what the budget could afford.
"We will be choosing only the best athletes and those who have high potential in winning. It will be a lean delegation, but it will be the meanest crowd," Ramirez added.
He said that if the Philippine Olympic Committee would want to send more, then it would have to shell out money from its own coffers.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 18, 2006 issue)
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