Philippine Sports Commission Chair Butch Ramirez, no stranger to the challenging goals that the office of the chef de mission (CDM) must accomplish, said that the country “must not settle for anything less than the overall title.”
“Our government will spend a great deal of money for the hosting of the Games. We won’t settle for anything less than the overall title,” Ramirez said.
President Duterte has approved P6 billion for the entire preparations and operations of the hosting from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11 in New Clark City in Subic, Metro Manila and Tagaytay City.
“We’ll be going all-out for our athletes to achieve the goal and we want a return on investment,” said Ramirez, who also steered the Philippines to its first-ever overall plum in the 2005 Manila SEA Games as the country’s CDM back then.
Malacañang has thrown its full backing on Ramirez, who, despite the tons of responsibilities in his office as the government arm for sports, took on the CDM role again.
“We commend him for taking the extra time to study the responsibilities of the position and only accepting after he has determined that he can successfully perform them,” Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said.
“With Chairman Ramirez’s leadership, we have great confidence in the success of the upcoming SEA Games becoming a reality. Chairman Ramirez’s knowledge and experience leave no doubt that he is the best person to get the job done,” Medialdea added.
Ramirez, preparing the over 1,800 Filipino athletes from 57 sports to excel in their respective disciplines in time for the Games, will meet the national sports associations involved on Tuesday at the PICC to assess the viability of the objective.
Calling for the “bayanihan spirit” to achieve great things in the SEAG, Medialdea pointed out that the unified effort from all the stakeholders in sports, including the public, is necessary.
“Let this be a call for unity and ignite the flames of bayanihan that will sustain us in our road for gold in the SEA Games and the success of Philippine sports for generations to come,” Medialdea said.
The CDM appointment of Ramirez last week led to a truce among the conflicting parties inside the Philippine Olympic Committee board that threatened to put the SEAG hosting in total disarray.