SEAG bets told to tighten belt

MANILA, Philippines - Members of the task force working on the Philippine participation to the 26th SEA Games in November has called for austerity measures among the concerned NSAs (national sports associations).

The Philippine Sports Commission has already allocated P30 million for the actual participation, including airfare, board and lodging, allowances and parade uniforms of the entire delegation.

But the PSC is now facing an even bigger request of around P68 million to cover the international exposures of the Filipino athletes three months before the Games unfold in Indonesia.

“The Philippine Sports Commission has made it clear that the budget is only P30 million so we have to approach this campaign from a position of austerity,” said deputy chef de mission Julian Camacho.

The task force is looking into the possibility that some of the requests from the different NSAs for their SEA Games exposures were already part of the annual budget they’ve secured from the PSC.

“We are now screening the budgets because some of them could have been duplicated. Some of the NSAs have already built these requests into their annual budget,” said task force member Mark Joseph.

The supplemental budget for the SEA Games costing around P68 will also be spent on the equipment and training needs of the Filipino athletes.

“We are now communicating to them that the budgets they submitted cannot be afforded. So they have to cut their budgets,” said Joseph, who’s now looking at a Philippine delegation of 600 athletes and officials.