Playing both Santa and the Grinch

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chair William Ramirez is playing both Santa and the Grinch this Christmas.

Spreading good cheer, Ramirez announced last week that a national training facility for Filipino athletes—the first ever to be owned by the PSC—will be built beginning middle of next year.

Budgeted at P3.5 billion, the world-class Philippine Sports Training Center will be located on 20 hectares in Rosales, Pangasinan. It is similar in blueprint to the New Clark City Sports Complex, a part of the Clark Green City in Capas, Tarlac.

Ramirez said the PSC is also targeting to construct 14 regional training centers “because these are necessary if we are to have grassroots sports programs.”

Switching into a spoilsport, Ramirez warned that national sports associations (NSAs) who can’t or won’t resolve their leadership disputes were on notice.

He said if these NSAs don’t stop their internecine wars, the PSC will be forced to “stop their funding and give the allowances directly to their athletes.”

While it waits for the national sports training center in its backyard to become reality, Pangasinan is earmarking a small percentage of its annual general budget of P3.4 billion to continue supporting its sports academy.

Launched in 2017, the academy gets P10 million a year.

“The goal is to sharpen the competitive edge of athletes aching for prime time, a chore once neglected but is now the focus of national sports officials,” said Gov. Amado Espino III.

A titan in Ilocos region sports, Pangasinan already has the modern Narciso Ramos Memorial Sports Complex in Lingayen to house and train athletes.

Recently, about 180 athletes and their coaches were chosen as the first batch of participants to train in 14 sports disciplines at the Ramos complex.

Condolences to the family of Dr. Reynaldo “Rening” Banez, who died this week at age 89. He is survived by wife, Gregoria, and sons Rodilon, also a medical doctor and Rene, a lawyer and former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. Dr. Rening’s remains will be interred Friday, Dec. 21, at the Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija catholic cemetery following a 9 a.m. mass at the Parokya ni San Roque Church.