A PSC warning

This month of December alone, PSC chair William “Butch” Ramirez has issued statements to national sports associations and national athletes on how the country will handle the hosting of 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

This was an aftermath of the Senate hearing headed by Sen. Manny Pacquiao on the unliquidated cash advances of the NSAs and the unaccounted P27 million used by the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Philsoc) headed by POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco in hosting the Manila Sea Games in 2005.

Last Dec. 12, Ramirez said the PSC will make sure that every single centavo spent in hosting the biennial meet will be properly liquidated and accounted for.

The government sports funding body released a total of P167 million to Philsoc specifically for the staging of the 2005 biennial meet.

More than a decade after the country’s hosting of the games, COA ordered Cojuangco and other officials to return the alleged unliquidated P27 million and other funds released to the NSAs from 2005 to present.

This prompted Ramirez to handle the 2019 SEA Games funds with the help of COA to avoid misuse of the government money.

On Dec. 13 Ramirez issued a stern warning to NSAs and unproductive coaches and athletes to perform better in the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games in 2017 or run the risk of not getting any funding from the government.

He said the country must perform better in Kuala Lumpur because people are now asking where Philippine sports is going.

After taking the overall championships in the 2005 Manila Sea Games, the Philippines slipped to seventh in Myanmar in 2013 and sixth in 2015 Singapore Games.