The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is discouraging the inclusion of team sports in the coming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games and limiting the national delegation to individual athletes with gold-medal potentials.
PSC chair Richie Garcia said the agency has suggested to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) to send only a small contingent of 50 athletes or less and raised the possibility of withdrawing financial support for the participation of basketball, football and dragon boat in the Dec. 11 to 22 meet.
“We must show the organizers that we don’t agree with the policies that they’ve decided to implement,” said Garcia. “We can show our dismay by sending a token delegation.”
Myanmar organizers had removed several sports where Filipino athletes are strong, like tennis, baseball, softball, beach volleyball, dance sports and gymnastics, and replaced them with indigenous disciplines offering 60 gold medals such as vovinam, chinlone, kempo and tarung derajat.
The Philippines placed sixth among 11 countries in the 2011 SEA Games held in Indonesia while Myanmar finished seventh overall.
“It’s up to the POC to decide,” said Garcia. “We’re just protecting the government’s money.”