THE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) technical team is set to arrive next week to assess the possible venues should the country's hosting of the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games will be held in Davao City.
This was bared to Sun.Star Davao by PSC chairman William "Butch" Ramirez in a phone interview late Wednesday afternoon. He is in the city for a couple of days and is flying back to Manila today.
He said, "The Philippine Olympic Commitee (POC) wanted it in Davao. A technical team will come next week to look at the possible venues here."
Ramirez cited the ongoing construction of a 10-hectare sports complex at the University of Mindanao and a 20-hectare city sports complex at the University of the Philippines Mindanao (UP Min) as well as the Davao del Norte Sports Complex that hosted the 2016 Palarong Pambansa.
The 70,000-seater King Dome being built by Jesus Christ the Name Above Every Name of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy was also mentioned by Ramirez.
The technical team is composed of PSC commissioners Charles Raymond Maxey and Arnold Agustin, former acting executive director lawyer Guillermo Iroy, Jr. who is currently with the PSC budget office, and an engineer he did not identify.
"Within one week, they will assess the situation here, assess the construction and evaluate the facilities. Along the way, there's still three years of preparations," Ramirez said.
He added that the technical team will also check the sports facilities in Manila just in case Davao will not be up to the hosting.
He reiterated the hope of winning the overall title, duplicating the 2015 performance as the host country has the option to select events that will be competed in the SEA Games.