SEAG venues rehab draws praise

They’re far from being impressed but nevertheless satisfied.

Sports officials from Malaysia and Singapore yesterday conducted an ocular inspection of the Metro Manila venues for the 23rd Southeast Asian Games slated Nov. 27-Dec. 5 and said they liked what they saw as far as the rehabilitation being done on these sports facilities is concerned.

In fact, Low Beng Choo, the Malaysians’ chief of mission in the Manila SEAG, spoke well of the RP move to renovate existing venues instead of constructing new ones.

"I think it’s an excellent idea for the Philippines to use existing facilities," said Low, who is also the vice president of the Malaysian Olympic Committee and head of its national softball association. "Even in Malaysia our government said we should not build new facilities just for the sake of one event because after that you don’t know what to do with it."

Todd Vladich, who led the three-man inspection team sent by the Singapore Sports Council here, also showed satisfaction on the progress of the country’s preparations for the biennial event.

"All the facilities we’ve seen so far were really good. I don’t think there’s going to be a problem with anything," said Vladich, an Australian who works as senior manager of the Singapore Sports Council’s High Performance Management Division.

Harry Angping, who chairs the Philippine Olympic Committee’s technical group, accompanied the foreign officials in inspecting the baseball stadium, tennis center, and the track and field oval, which is currently being refurbished.

The two groups of officials, along with First Gentleman Foundation’s monitoring committee chair Butch Tuason, sepak takraw’s Mario Tanchangco, baseball’s Hector Navasero and track and field’s Ben Silva-Netto, also visited the softball venue in Rosario, Pasig and the Philsports Arena, also in Pasig, late in the afternoon.

"We’re showing them that this is what we have and we will not hide anything from them," said Angping, who will also accompany the two groups to Cebu and Bacolod, the two other satellite venues of the SEAG, on Aug. 4-5 before returning to Manila on Aug. 6.