PSC seeks more budget for athletes

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Sports Commission chair Richie Garcia stressed the need to increase his agency’s budget to improve the athletes’ lot and provide them with necessary facilities for training.

Garcia, who was guest in last Thursday’s SCOOP Sa Kamayan On Air, also expressed the need for the construction of a national training center to replace the 80-year-old Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, adding that the country’s and Asia’s first stadium has outlived its usefulness.

“To build a new stadium, however, as well as providing our athletes adequate international standard training equipment to prepare them for international competitions, we need more money,” Garcia said during the program .

“We have money, yes, not enough to fund our athletes’ preparation for international competitions like the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games and the Olympic Games,” he said in reference to the P700 million to P800 million annual budget the PSC is receiving from the General Appropriations Act, Pagcor and other sources.

“The results of the just-concluded SEA Games once again showed the insufficient training of our athletes due to the lack of a training center equipped with modern equipment as well as the superiority of their peers from our neighboring countries who have been provided with modern facilities we, unfortunately lack,” he emphasized.

“That is why we will be appealing to our lawmakers for an increase in financial requirements when the hearing for next year’s budget is conducted,” Garcia, a golfer and former director of the National Golf Association of the Philippines, said.

Besides the PSC’s allotment from the GAA, Garcia said the board of commissioners will be seeking the help of the private sectors and look for assistance from other countries where his agency has an exchange sports program.

“We will also be looking on how the PSC can recover the almost 50 percent it lost from its share of the Pagcor annual income,” he said, referring to a provision in the Republic Act 6847, otherwise known as the PSC Law granting the agency five percent of Pagcor’s gross income.

For several years now, the five percent of Pagcor’s gross income had been reduced to five percent of the gaming agency’s net income that took effect during the administration of President Ramos.

“If we can revert to the old provision, which has not been repealed in the first place, it will help us start construction of a national training center,” the PSC top honcho said.

“It saddened me seeing countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and even former war-torn nations like Laos and Myanmar already have international standard venue, while the Philippines which has the distinction of building Asia’s first stadium has none,” Garcia lamented.

Garcia said the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, which was constructed in connection with the country’s hosting of the 10th and last edition of the 1934 Far Eastern Games, forerunner of the now Asian Games, is no longer an ideal place as training venue of athletes.

“It’s already antiquated, besides being so polluted with many distractions hinderng athletes’ training,” he said. “I’ve seen so many athletes from the province who have respiratory problems after being only a week at the Rizal Memorial.”

“We also have apprehended several athletes engaging in drugs even while inside the complex. This is not the right place to house our athletes, much less use this as their training venue,” Garcia said.