By NICK GIONGCO
The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is looking to provide the needs of the national athletes and coaches amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PSC Board had met via video conference a few days ago to discuss the possibility of having its own amelioration program for the athletes and coaches.
PSC commissioner Ramon Fernandez said the PSC, which gets the lion’s share of its budget from Pagcor, is worried about the lack of funds being channeled to the agency.
“Since the PSC is not getting funds from the Pagcor (because of the pandemic) since there is no operations, we are studying if the PSC can come up with something,” said Fernandez.
“Accounting will study the amounts vis a vis available funds,” added Fernandez, who will meet anew with PSC chairman Butch Ramirez and three other commissioners and key officials to determine if it can be made possible.
National training director Marc Velasco, however, cautions that everything is still “on the drawing board.”
“The PSC is just preparing for a worst-case scenario,” said Velasco, obviously referring to the possibility that the lockdown is extended way beyond April 30.
Velasco said the PSC wants to make sure the athletes and coaches will be taken cared of if the coronavirus outbreak doesn’t go away the soonest.
National athletes are classified into main four groups: Elite Class A, Class A, Class B and Class C.
Olympic and world champions (Elite) get P45,000 while Olympic qualifiers, Youth Olympic Games and Paralympic Games medalists receive P43,000 under the Class A. Class B are made up of Asian Games, Asian Paragames, Asian Winter Games and Asian Indoor and Asian Martial Arts gold medalists and worth P36,000.
Class C is made up of silver and bronze medalists from the Asian-level group and comes with a P33,000 monthly allowance.
The other classifications have a pay range of P30,000 down to P24,000.
In the unfortunate event that the PSC doesn’t get its funds needed to sustain the allowance, it will only be then that the amelioration program will be considered, Velasco clarified.
