Some events of the 30th Southeast Asian Games will now be held in the provinces of Laguna and Cavite.
Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee executive director Tom Carrasco said this at the close of the second chefs de mission meeting among member countries yesterday at the Hilton Hotel in Pasay City.
Carrasco explained that they are experiencing shortages of places to stage events that they have calendared in Subic Bay, Pampanga and at Clark Field in Angeles.
“Wala nang venues. We have to look somewhere else,” said Carrasco.
So far, the Centro Mall in Los Baños, Laguna will host floor ball and indoor hockey, while women’s football will now be in Biñan.
They have found a venue for net ball in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, while underwater hockey will be held at the Vermosa Sports Complex in Imus, Cavite.
“Hindi lang nailagay sa Manila ang mga venues. Nailabas na rin namin sa Southern Luzon,” said Carrasco.
Meanwhile, Malaysian CDM Datuk Megat Zulkkrnain Omardin said they are satisfied with the ongoing preparations for the Games, and the full report that they got from PHISGOC chief operating officer Ramon Suzara, and the 12 representatives from Malaysia’s National Sports Council, the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and National Sports Institute arrived in the country early this week to do inspections.
“We are quite happy to see what is happening, I will tell our tournament managers that the Philippines is ready,” added Omardin.
Omardin said he agrees with the observations of the Singapore delegation that the Philippines seems to have reached the 75 percent mark in its efforts to prepare for the biennial meet.
Chris Chan, secretary general of the Singapore National Olympic Committee, said that 75 percent is a good figure, considering that there’s still five months to go.”
Chan, along with other heads of delegations, is set to visit the various venues of the Games yesterday at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan and at the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.
Chan believes that the country’s hosting this time is quite challenging, considering that there are 56 sports disciplines that will be on tap.
“The last time Philippines hosted in 2005, the Philippines had 40 sports. That’s quite a big figure. This time, 56. That’s quite a challenging figure,” said Chan.
Representatives from 11-member nations first attended a two-and-half hour meeting among CDMs and their representative, before going into one-on-one meetings with the different departments of the PHISGOC on Thursday.
So far, there are now 44 venues which will hold events when the Games are held from November 30 to December 10.
