By Nick Giongco
The Joint Administrative Order (JAO), made up of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Games and Amusements Board (GAB) and Department of Health (DOH), admits it will take more than just the submission of safety protocols for contact sports to get the go signal to resume training.
Marc Velasco of the PSC said that there are certain sports that will easily be permitted given the nature of its brand of play.
“The concern is on the contact sports,” said Velasco, who confers with GAB chairman Baham Mitra in assessing the respective applications of the national sports associations.
Seventeen sports, including boxing, judo, karate, taekwondo and wrestling have been identified as those with aspirations of making the grade for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics next year.
Other sports that have submitted safety guidelines to Tokyo Olympics chief of mission Nonong Araneta include athletics, archery, 3×3 basketball, canoe kayak, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, rowing, skateboarding, triathlon and weightlifting.
Velasco said doctors from the PSC, GAB and DOH are joining hands in dissecting the safety measures of each NSA.
Ed Picson, secretary general of the Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines, said the JAO already has its proposal in an effort to open up training camp.
Boxing already has two qualifiers in Eumir Marcial and Irish Magno and is targeting to qualify three more.
Velasco said the JAO is giving the 17 sports topmost priority in terms of attention but should the situation allow in the coming months, it will also look into the possibility of allowing the other NSAs too.
“We also have the Southeast Asian Games in 2021,” said Velasco, referring to Hanoi’s hosting.
