Sunday, April 17, 2011

POC looks for ‘godfathers’ to finance SEA Games athletes

Philippine Daily Inquirer

by: June Navarro



MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Olympic Committee is reviving the “godfather” scheme to help the cash-strapped Philippine Sports Commission in funding the country’s participation in the November Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.
POC chairman Monico Puentevella announced on Monday that the Olympic body would seek the help of the country’s business tycoons in picking up the rest of the tab for the national contingent.
Puentevella said the Philippine delegation should raise P90 million for the SEAG campaign and the PSC had only earmarked P30 million.
With 542 gold medals at stake in 44 sports, the biennial games scheduled for November 11 to 22 in two venues in Indonesia are projected to become the biggest staging of the 11-nation meet.
PSC chairman Richie Garcia said a budget of P100,000 has been pegged for each member of the expected 900-strong contingent of athletes and officials.
To address the deficit, Puentevella said that successful companies and billionaires should be tapped for help in supporting most of the 40 national sports associations in the SEAG.
The former Bacolod City solon said the strategy proved successful before, citing the roles played by multimillionaires Danding Cojuangco (basketball), Roberto Benedicto (swimming), Lucio Tan (weightlifting), Panfilo Domingo (lawn tennis) and Dominador Pangilinan (baseball).
Pangilinan is the father of telecom magnate Manny V. Pangilinan, who is supporting basketball, boxing, taekwondo, tennis, badminton, football and wrestling through PLDT and Smart.



The Philippine contingent to the south east asian games this year in Indonesia really needs our support most especially financially. Let's just hope that many wealthy people in our country will support our athletes so that they can really feel our support and this will give them the boost, confidence and inspiration to do everything they could to win medals for our country.

via reuters
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