Officials, athletes trapped in organizational mess

PALEMBANG, Indonesia – Athletes and coaches are looking for some Philippine officials to curse following mixups on their way to Jakarta or Palembang from Manila.

Instead of getting the much needed rest, they are forced to wait for what seemed to be eternity to get certain documents processed before they could finally get to their rooms in the Athletes’ Village.

In Manila, members of the Philippine delegation could not figure out their scheduled departure.

The baseball and boxing teams were informed on the eve of departure that their afternoon flight was rescheduled for the morning. Boxing officials complained because they could no longer inform their boxers who had gone home to be with their families.

Then the advice came that they were scheduled in the afternoon. They arrived at the NAIA at 1:30 p.m. but they took not a flight aboard Singapore Airlines  but aboard Cebu Pacific. The other athletes in the afternoon flight took the SAS flight at 2:15 p.m. With the delayed arrival of the boxers and baseball players, the other group that arrived earlier had to wait one more hour for the boxes so they could take the same flight to Palembang.

In Palembang, athletes had to wait in the holding area, which is actually a reception area for SEAG participants, to secure the SEAG IDs which should have been issued them in Manila. Another one hour or so of waiting. It was already 10 p.m.when they got their IDs.

That was also the case of media men. Their morning flight morning was reset to the afternoon, and had to wait longer to get their IDs ready in Palembang.

That’s not the end of the story.  

Philippine delegation acting chef de mission Romeo Magat on Thursday said  Indonesian sports and local officials here are still left with some problems to sort out, foremost of which are transportation and accommodations for the different delegations that are still steadily flocking to this South Sumatra capital.

Organizers had some foresight, assigning 22 of the Palembang events at the JSC and billeting the entries right there.

According to Magat, the problem persists because Vietnam, which originally listed a 1,200-member delegation has 2,500, mostly in Palembang.