INQUIRER Sports

“I’M JUST A PHONE CALL AWAY.”

This was the response of Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. Wednesday to an earlier call by Philippine Sports Commission chair Harry Angping for the two bodies to work together for the sake of the national athletes.

“If he (Angping) really wants to fix this, he doesn’t have to announce it in front of the media,” said Cojuangco. “I’m just a phone call away.”

Since Angping took over from Butch Ramirez several months ago, the PSC and POC have been at loggerheads especially in the matter of funding RP stints in international competitions.

And with the Southeast Asian Games in Laos just a little over a month away, the two sports bodies have yet to agree on the size of the RP delegation with the PSC approving just 153 athletes and the POC still batting for 250 bets even to the point of funding the additional entries.

Angping backed down from his hard-line stance at the PSA Forum Tuesday, saying that “Philippine sports will not succeed if the PSC and POC don’t work together.”

Cojuangco admitted that the POC-PSC rift has been hampering preparations for the SEA Games, where the country is hoping to redeem itself after a worst finish of sixth overall in 2007 in Thailand.

“These are difficult times for us as well as for the athletes,” said Cojuangco. “They’re (athletes) feeling the pinch and have started complaining.”

While the POC is in charge of preparing the RP delegation through the national sports association, funding comes from the PSC, which, under Angping, wants to support only the athletes with strong medal potentials.

Meanwhile, the POC struck a deal with 361 Degrees Co. Ltd., a China-based firm which agreed to become the official outfitter of the Philippine delegation in major competitions starting with the Laos SEAG scheduled Dec. 9-18.

POC chair Monico Puentevella said the one-year agreement would extend to the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China, 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and the 2010 Asian Beach Games in Muscat, Oman.

“We have to approach other suppliers because we’re now on our own,” said Puentevella during the contract-signing at the Hyatt Hotel in Manila.