Sen. Trillanes eyes PSC abolition

PSC Chairman Richie Garcia.

MANILA, Philippines— Senator Antonio Trillanes IV will sponsor a bill seeking to abolish the Philippine Sports Commission and replace the sports-funding agency with a cabinet-level government office answerable only to the Office of the President.

Trillanes called for the establishment of a department for sports whose top official would enjoy the same rank as the other secretaries of the cabinet.

“Once passed into law, sports will become a priority. It will have the same degree of importance along with the other departments in the cabinet,” Trillanes told the Inquirer. “At that level, the budget for sports will also increase.”

Trillanes said bringing the PSC to a cabinet rank would provide a clear-cut set of policies on the extent of the government’s participation in sports.

“It (PSC) reports to the President and answers to the POC (Philippine Olympic Committee),” said Trillanes, chair of the Senate committee on Civil Service and Government Reorganization.

“Right now, you don’t know what kind of an animal is the PSC,” the newly installed table tennis chief pointed out.

Trillanes was elected president of the Table Tennis Association of the Philippines along with businessman-sportsman Jay Omila as chair but the POC refused to recognize them.

The PSC strictly provides financial assistance only to national sports associations recognized by the POC, a private entity.

The long-running relationship between the PSC and the Olympic body is mandated by Republic Act 6847, the law that created the government sports body in 1990.