POC wants SEAG final roster at 247

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Olympic Committee pushes for 247 athletes, nothing more, nothing less, to represent the Philippines in the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos in December.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco said 247 is the official number of athletes which RP Team chef-de-mission Mario Tanchanco submitted to the Laos organizers last week.

Cojuangco said the number, just a little higher than the 236, which the Philippines sent to the Brunei SEA Games in 1999, is not something POC officials just pulled out of their pockets.

“Pinag-isipan namin na mabuti ito (We thought about it thoroughly),” said the POC chief during a 10-minute phone patch interview from Tarlac over Sports Radio DZSR.

Cojuangco said after the Thailand SEAG in 2007, where close to 680 athletes represented the Philippines, the POC had thought of reducing the number for this year’s edition scheduled Dec. 9 to 18.

“We were looking at around 250 to 300 athletes but the Philippine Sports Commission wanted less. We can’t allow that because if we only send the gold and silver medalists of 2007, then what happens to the other athletes?” Cojuangco said.

“What about our future, aspiring and promising athletes? Where else can we give them a shot? And besides, it would mean that we will be sending the older batch of athletes,” said Cojuangco.

A total of 132 officials, or more than half the number of athletes, will go to Laos.

The Philippines will compete in only 21 of 25 sports disciplines to be disputed in Laos, and the POC thinks that with these 247 athletes the country can improve on its fifth-place finish the last time out.

“Each athlete in this list was justified, and there’s a reason for their inclusion. We just can’t cut it down so low because that would be a shame to our program and a shame to our athletes,” Cojuangco explained.

The PSC, under chairman Harry Angping, came up with a list of 130 qualified athletes for Laos, and later on agreed to hike the number to 153, composed of gold and silver medalists in 2007 and promising ones.

But that’s as far as the government sports agency can go. Angping said it can only fund the 153 athletes, meaning the rest under the POC list, the 96 athletes, should be funded by the local Olympic body.