Rizal Memorial, PhilSports on lockdown after COVID-19 outbreak

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will close down its administration offices at the Rizal Sports Memorial Complex in Manila and PhilSports Complex in Pasig for 10 days starting Tuesday after COVID-19 cases among its employees rose from 35 to 63 on Monday.

The government sports-funding agency will use the period to disinfect affected areas at Rizal and PhilSports.

The PhilSports Complex, Rizal Memorial Coliseum and Ninoy Aquino Stadium, which are being used as quarantine facilities and swab testing centers, will continue its operations since all of the three are under the supervision of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF).

“We hope to break the transmission during those days and arrest the spread of COVID-19 among our employees,” said PSC chief of staff Marc Velasco. “We are still waiting for some test results and we are hoping that we do not add any more positives.”

PSC acting executive director Atty. Guillermo Iroy, for his part, said office operations shall shift to work-from-home arrangements on those lockdown dates to ensure that delivery of service remains unhampered.

“We don’t want some operations to be compromised so we’ll have some working from their homes,” said Iroy.

Iroy said they would implement stricter measures once the lockdown is lifted.

“It is for everyone’s safety. We all have a family to protect,” he said.