Ramirez to deputies: Focus on athletes

Chef de mission (CDM) and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chair Butch Ramirez gave a straightforward and simple instruction to his deputy CDMs for the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

“Whatever happens, we just focus on helping the athletes,” Ramirez told his six deputies after appointing them to their respective cluster assignments for the Games on Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.

Among the DCDMs, taekwondo official Stephen Fernandez will be the alter ego of Ramirez when the latter becomes too busy going about his multiple functions as the government’s top man in sports.

Fernandez, a taekwondo bronze medalist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, was appointed DCDM together with Philippine Rugby Football Union secretary general Ada Milby and PSC Commissioners Celia Kiram, Mon Fernandez, Charles Maxey and Arnold Agustin.

Milby and Agustin have been tapped to oversee the 19 sports at New Clark City.

Maxey and Mon Fernandez will cover the 22 sports in Metro Manila and Southern Luzon while Kiram has been tasked to supervise the 16 sports in the Subic cluster.