Lessons learned for PSC

PSC chair William Ramirez. Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Japan should serve as a perfect model to our sports officials when it comes to budget spending in hosting big sports events like the Olympics.

Before Christmas, Tokyo 2020 organizers divulged a whopping $16.8-billion budget for the hosting of the Summer Olympic Games in a meeting with officials from the International Olympic Commitee (IOC), Tokyo government and the national government.

IOC vice president John Coates said the working group will continue to participate in the budget process until the preparation is complete.

The Japan organizing committee said a big chunk of the budget would come from sponsorship and IOC contributions—and not a single centavo will be collected from the public.

This practice of Japan in handling the government money should be emulated here in the Philippines to avoid corruption by our sports officials.

Just recently, the Senate Committee on Youth and Sports headed by Sen. Manny Pacquiao conducted an inquiry on the unliquidated cash advances of the national sports associations.

It turned out that the Philippine Southeast Asian Games organizing committee (Philsoc), led by POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, had unliquidated cash advances of P27 million, eleven years after the country hosted the 2005 Manila Southeast Asian Games.

The budget was included in the P167 million released by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for the hosting of the biennial meet.

However, a Philsoc official denied this and that they will submit to Senate the same documents they already submitted to COA.

Learning lessons from 2005, PSC chair William “Butch” Ramirez said his agency and COA will handle the disbursement of funds when the country hosts the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

Ramirez said this time, he will not allow the POC or the organizers to handle the disbursement of SEA Games funds.