A school with special emphasis on developing the athletic skills of its students is now on the drawing board.
Sen. Sonny Angara has filed Senate Bill 330, which seeks the creation of a Philippine High School for Sports (PHSS) in response to the call of President Duterte to put up a national academy for sports during his fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona).
Angara explained that the PHSS is an educational institution dedicated to developing budding young athletes while simultaneously providing them with quality secondary education.
The senator added that the establishment of a PHSS will help the country in coming up with a deeper pool of athletes for its national teams.
“We are all waiting for the day when we will be able to watch more of our homegrown athletes competing at the world stage and seeing them bring home glory for the country,” said Angara.
He explained that the objective of the bill is to prepare “students who have shown their early potential of excelling in sports for a sports-related career while undergoing quality secondary education.”
The Philippine Sports Commission also formed a parallel effort to discover hidden gems on the high school level and mold them into world-class athletes someday.
PSC Chair Butch Ramirez told the Inquirer that the agency would tap the 27 million senior high students from 43,000 schools across the nation for the talent-search program.
“We can never have Olympic gold medalists and create Filipino athletes who can play in the NBA or MLB if we don’t take the training of our athletes seriously,” said Angara.