PSC sweetens pot for Paris bets

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the Philippine team to the forthcoming Paris Olympics, from the 22 athletes to their respective coaches, are in for a pleasant surprise.

Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richard Bachmann yesterday bared that the government sports agency has prepared additional allowance for the Nationals in the Olympics scheduled from July 26 to Aug. 11.

“The board approved a bigger allowance for athletes and coaches,” Bachmann, who will fly to Paris on July 22, told the “PSC Hour” on Radyo Pilipinas yesterday.

“I just don’t want to say it (actual figure) here kasi I want to surprise the athletes and coaches who are over there,” he added.

Bachmann said the PSC is in constant coordination with each sport, athlete and coach in the delegation’s pre-Games camp in Metz, France as well as the Philippine Embassy and the Pinoy community in France to ensure things are running smoothly.

“Everything’s okay and we’re just making sure we’re actually addressing all issues, kung meron man, of our athletes in France,” he said.

“What I’m trying to do right now is to clear out all the issues that our athletes experience abroad. Hopefully, the PSC and POC (Philippine Olympic Committee) can take care of that so our athletes and coaches can just worry about training and performing. We’ll take care of the backend,” he added.

Bachmann reported that the government sports body’s financial support to the Olympic campaign has exceeded P100 million since the qualification process started last year.

“We started actually giving assistance to all our athletes since last year. In our GAA (general appropriations) 2023, we had about P50 million all for the preparation and all qualifying tournaments of all athletes,” he shared.

“Now carried over to this year, 2024, in our GAA we had around P52 million – a combination of insertions from Senator Bong Go and Senator Risa Hontiveros.”

He said the spending so far covered expenses for training camps (P21 million), airfare, luggage and parade uniforms (P11 million) and participation in Olympic Qualifiers (P13.8 million).

From the national sports development fund (NSDF) received from remittances from Pagcor, Bachmann said the PSC has spent another P15 million this year for the Olympic drive.

Moreover, he reported that the PSC has also generated P3 million from its fund-raising golf tournament and likewise received financial assistance from Sen. Pia Cayetano.

“We’re just fixing the paper works and once that’s settled, we’ll deposit it in their accounts,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bachmann said the commission has allotted P15 million for the country’s campaign in the Paralympics slated Aug. 28 to Sept. 8 also in Paris.