Play well or lose pay, Garcia warns

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia yesterday warned the national athletes and training pool members to shape up and perform well in the Phil National Games if they want to continue receiving their monthly allowances.

“To tell you the truth, we don’t have the power in the PSC to remove athletes from the team, that’s with the NSAs (national sports associations),” said Garcia. “What we have is the power to remove our athletes’ monthly allowance if they perform poorly.”

Class A athletes, the gold medalists in the SEA Games and winners in stronger regional meets, get a monthly salary worth P20,000 while those belonging to Class B and Class C receive monthly stipends of P15,000 and P10,000, respectively.

Although not all NSAs are fielding in their athletes in the meet, those competing must do their best and show the government sports-funding agency that they deserve to be in pool and payroll.

“One of the reasons we’re holding this event is for us to get to discover talents from the provinces that we hope will make our national team,” said Garcia. “The other is for our present national team members to always stay in shape and not to get too relaxed.”