PSC awaits P90M more from Palace for SEAG use

With barely three weeks left before the start of the Vietnam SEA Games, the Philippine Sports Commission is still waiting for the additional P90 million fund from Malacañang which will be used for the actual participation of the 449 RP athletes in the biennial competition.

Chairman Eric Buhain of the PSC submitted the request to Malacañang last Monday. Once granted, the additional fund will use up P35 million for equipment while the rest will cover the airfare, lodging and allowances of the athletes and the 209 officials that will join the trip.

So far, the PSC has spent at least P22 million for its SEA Games buildup. The Philippines is hoping to win 40 to 60 gold medals in Vietnam and hopes to improve on its fifth place finish two years ago in Kuala Lumpur.

Gracing yesterday’s SCOOP Forum, the 33-year-old Buhain declared the readiness of the RP athletes to do battle against their regional counterparts.

"I have been meeting with our athletes every Monday and I have not seen them as confident. Yung iba nga ang sabi kung puwede lang ngayon na ang laban. This, to me, is a testament to their confidence and readiness for the big battle ahead," said Buhain.

The former swimming sensation said 90 to 95 percent of their gold medal expectations would come from the 85 athletes from 17 sports associations that benefitted from First Gentleman Mike Arroyo’s recent fund-raising campaign that netted more than P20 million from the private sector.

Sports disciplines that benefited directly from the campaign were archery, athletics, boxing, cycling, diving, fencing, gymnastics, judo, karatedo, pencak silat, rowing, shooting, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.

San Miguel Corp. turned out to be the most generous among the donors when it shelled out P10 million for the SEA Games campaign.