No more worries for the equipment that will be used for the coming SEA Games which the country will be hosting starting this Nov. 30.
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez has assured everybody that they are ready to release funds for the purchase of competition equipment.
As provided for in the tripartite agreement signed by PSC, the POC and the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC), the PSC is ready to transfer said funds to the POC after PHISGOC finalized and submitted their master list of competition equipment requirements for the Games.
This will come from the P5 billion earmarked for the SEA Games.
However, the sports chief was quick to remind that beyond the funding being poured into the country’s SEAG hosting, it is the success in building a united sports community supporting a more dedicated and motivated Filipino athlete and a renewed interest in sports among Filipinos that he regards as true victories in this sports history in-the-making.
“The real victory we gain are the values that we are going to develop among our athletes and country men, through our participation in this Games,” shared Ramirez.
In the last SEAG hosting of the country in 2005, with Ramirez also at the helm of the PSC and also Chef de Mission of Team Philippines, the country emerged as overall champion – a feat that many hope to replicate in this 2019 hosting.
HANDOVER CEREMONY
Meantime, the formal handover ceremony of the country’s hosting of the biennial event will be held on Oct. 3 at Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala, Lumpur.
It will be highlighted by the lighting of the Philippine lantern signaling the countdown to the opening of the Games on Nov. 30 at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.
Apart from Ramirez, who is the country’s chef de mission, also invited in the ceremony are House Speaker and PHISGOC chairman Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano and the Philippine Olympic Committee president Rep. Bambol Tolentino.
