PSC worry: Liquidation woes hound several NSAs

MANILA, Philippines—Several national sports associations have become a source of headache for the Philippine Sports Commission after failing to justify their financial assistance from the government.

PSC chair Richie Garcia declined to name the associations in hot water but confirmed that the sports-funding agency is going through a difficult phase solving the liquidation woes of these NSAs.

“We’ve checked all the records and these NSAs are having problems with documentations,” said Garcia.

Garcia remained firm in implementing a PSC policy that would disqualify an association from getting financial help this year unless their past expenses have been settled and justified through receipts and pertinent purchase documents.

“They have the receipts and the documents but some of them were not signed. We’re in constant contact with these NSAs,” said Garcia.

The PSC earlier released a list of 58 NSAs, which have unsettled finances totaling P130.6 million, although some of them have already been cleared by the agency.

Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. said some of the NSAs just inherited the unliquidated
financial aid from their predecessors and would be quite impossible to straighten out in the absence of documentation.

Cojuangco suggested that associations in such quandary should submit a comprehensive report to Malacañang and ask President Aquino for amnesty.

Athletics chief Go Teng Kok, whose association has settled his previous allocations from the PSC, said seeking amnesty from the President is tantamount to admitting that government money had been misappropriated.

Go cited that the sports equipment purchased by the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee headed by Cojuangco as part of the financial help it got from the government when Manila hosted the meet in 2005 are still unaccounted for.