TRO bid will not affect SEA Games, Cayetano assures

MANILA, Philippines — The filing of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC), Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC)  will not affect the conduct of this year’s Southeast Asian Games (SEA) Games, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano assured Thursday.

Information technology company Atos reportedly filed for a temporary restraining order against PHISGOC, PSC, and POC over a controversial bidding on the Games’ information system management.

The firm questioned the validity of the public bidding held last August for the SEA Games Information Systems (SEAGIS) project, the event’s technical services, claiming that it has already been awarded to Atos last January.

Cayetano, who is the chairman of the PHISGOC, however, expressed confidence that this would not affect the SEA Games itself as the court has not yet issued a TRO.

“Hindi naman nag-issue ng TRO ang korte so confident naman kami dahil ang Department of Budget and Management ang nagprocure nitong lahat (The court hasn’t issued a TRO and we are confident because it is the DBM that procured it),” Cayetano said in an interview at the House of Representatives.

“That won’t affect the games. Kasi nga may nanalong supplier and they will be the one to provide (Because there is already a supplier that won and they will be the one to provide),” he added.

He also assured that the SEA Games would not be delayed despite reported issues in IT services.

The SEAGIS project was only awarded to a Filipino-Malaysian joint venture on Oct. 11 but the SEA Games is set to start on Nov. 30.

“We don’t expect any delays and ‘yun lang talaga yung running 56 sports and 530 events all at the same time is a big challenge, biggest sa SEA games yan (Running 56 sports and 530 events all at the same time is the biggest challenge in the SEA Games),” he said.

The SEA Games will open on Nov. 30 and end on Dec. 11.