MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Sports Commission yesterday turned down the Philippine Olympic Committee’s request to fund the participation of the rest of the 386-man delegation to next month’s Southeast Asian Games in Laos.
“We would like to categorically state that the PSC remains firm on its stand to finance only those in the final list that we agreed upon during our meeting,” said PSC chair Harry Angping in a letter sent to RP chief of mission Mario Tanchangco.
The PSC chief is currently out of the country on official business.
“Consequently, the additional athletes that the POC is pushing for inclusion cannot be supported by this office. Considering the lateness of the changes that the POC would like to make, additional procurement of equipment and apparels and adjustments to all necessary arrangements that we have undertaken are highly impracticable,” he said.
Angping was referring to the final list, which comprises of 251 athletes and 135 coaches and officials, the POC submitted to the Laos SEAG Organizing Committee (Lagoc) in time for last Tuesday’s deadline.
The POC list is twice the number the PSC had earlier agreed to finance, which is 200, including 153 athletes and 47 coaches and officials.
Angping, however, remains confident that the lean but mean delegation has a strong chance of winning the gold medals in the 10-day biennial meet.
“Our contingent this year, composed of 153 athletes and 47 officials, was indeed the smallest among our country’s participation in the SEA Games. But definitely this is a powerhouse squad and the most qualified,” Angping said.
“Having observed specific performance criteria, we were assured that all the athletes in the list were gold and silver medalists of previous SEA Games and other international competitions.
“However, after the meeting, we were surprised that you (Tanchangco) gave contrasting position, as well as feedbacks that the number of participating athletes will be increased to 213. We were also very much saddened because we got this information merely from newspaper articles,” Angping said.
Swimming’s Mark Joseph, the acting POC secretary-general earlier said the list should “supersede any list previously circulated by unauthorized parties” since the responsibility for naming the official members of the RP team rests solely on the national sports associations (NSAs).
He then went on to make a last-minute plea to the PSC to fund the rest of the athletes not included in the PSC roster.
“We have asked the PSC to fund all the members of the Philippine team, based on the selections made by each NSA in accordance with POC’s criteria,” said Joseph.