A review of the technical handbook will be the main agenda of today’s meeting of the Philippine Olympic Committee General Assembly.
POC spokesman Clint Aranas said this ahead of their talks with Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee Chairman, Congressman-elect Alan Peter Cayetano.
Most of the national sports associations need to be updated on the venues that will be used for the games, with five months left before the opening.
“We are looking for the technical handbook. And the PHISGOC is supposed to be taking care of this,” said Aranas, the head of the national sports association for archery, and also the president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System.
The scheduled POC Extraordinary General Assembly at the GSIS gymnasium is set at 1 p.m.
Acting president Joey Romasanta, the former POC first vice president who assumed the POC presidency via succession after Ricky Vargas filed his irrevocable resignation last Tuesday, will listen to the many concerns of NSA leaders.
Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez, who is also the chef de mission of the national delegation, will be present.
The POC, according to Aranas, is mainly concerned on the management and conduct of the 30th SEA Games.
“We will iron this out with the PHISGOC. The POC is concerned about the management and conduct of the Games. The national sports associations are supposed to handle the technical side of this,” said Aranas.
The POC believes that it should be on top of the Games’ preparations and that an ad hoc committee must be subject to the rules and regulations of the POC.
On the other hand, the Phisgoc Foundation formed by the previous POC administration, is not supposed to be part of the Games’ organization.
“We have to take a more active role in organizing the SEA Games because that is the mandate of the Philippine Olympic Committee,” said Aranas.
The Phisgoc Foundation is a body that is different from the organizing committee approved and ratified by the POC under the leadership of Jose “Peping” Cojuangco back in 2017.
The POC now seeks clarifications after the Foundation took over some of the functions of the POC and made some crucial decisions like the creation of the official SEA Games logo, mascot and other marketing collaterals.
Romasanta said he is set to sit down with Cayetano in the coming days to map out the SEA Games’ preparations.
Their meeting was supposed to take place over the last three days.
But Cayetano was in Bangkok, attending a meeting of the leaders’ summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
