INQUIRER Sports

THE PHILIPPINE SPORTS commission is sticking to its decision to fund only the 153 athletes and 47 officials recommended by the Southeast Asian Games selection committee for the Laos competition scheduled from Dec. 9 to 18.

PSC chair Harry Angping, in a letter to SEA Games chief of mission Mario Tanchangco Friday, categorically said “that the PSC remains firm in its stand to finance only those in the final listing that we agreed upon during our meeting.”

The PSC statement came a day after POC deputy secretary general and aquatics chief Mark Joseph made an unexpected plea to the PSC to lend support to what has now become a 386-strong delegation made up of 251 athletes and 135 officials.

Only two days earlier at the PSA Forum, POC spokesperson Joey Romasanta declared that the local Olympic body had already raised 75 percent of the P5.64 million budget for the additional athletes.

Tanchangco, representing the POC, and PSC commissioner Joey Mundo prepared the original list of 153 athletes and 47 officials based mainly on the criteria of a gold or silver in the 2007 SEA Games.

Meanwhile, seven judokas—part of the POC’s last-minute additions to the RP team—have bewailed the poor treatment they are getting from PSC officials.

The athletes said during yesterday’s Scoop sa Kamayan they felt bad because only the four PSC-approved judokas could get free meals at the PSC canteen.

The four judokas approved by the PSC are John Baylon, Nancy Quillotes, Hoshina Tomohiko and Karen Ann Solomon.