INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Olympic Committee will help bankroll the country?s stint in the first Asian Youth Games if the Philippine Sports Commission turns down its request for financial aid for the RP delegation to the June 27 to July 7 meet.

?We cannot allow the PSC to interfere and manage the affairs of the POC in the Asian Youth Games,? said POC president Jose ?Peping? Cojuangco Wednesday after the POC general assembly.

During the same meeting, the general assembly recognized the new set of elected officials in wushu, badminton, billiards and wrestling.

AYG chief of mission Cesar Binag had submitted a request of P7.5 million for the multisport meet in Singapore which the PSC rejected after Binag failed to present the complete list of 70 athletes and 30 officials.

PSC chair Harry Angping said that the PSC would provide financial assistance as soon as the 10 national sports associations represented in the AYG present a detailed roster of athletes along with an evaluation of their medal chances.

Meanwhile, Olympians Maristella Torres of athletics and Harry Tañamor of boxing has been allowed to sit down in the POC general assembly until the 2012 London Olympics while 2004 Athens Olympian Timothy Chua of swimming now has voting powers in the POC executive board.