THE Philippine Olympic Committee will focus its time and energy in taking care of the needs of elite athletes in the coming months.
POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. said this following his series of talks over the past weeks with Philippine Sports Commission chairman William “Butch” Ramirez.
Cojuangco said this will be among his priorities at the start of the coming year, 2017, and once the coming elections of the POC is over and done with.
“This is one agenda that I want to push. For the time in years, I will really be able to do things that needed to be done,” said Cojuangco following a meeting with officials of the Philippine Tennis Association and visiting International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty.
The POC, according to Cojuangco, will play a big role in development and training national athletes who are set to see action in international meets like the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games, and Asian Indoor Games by next year.
Grassroots development, on the other hand, will be left in the care of the PSC.
So far, the PSC is planning to put up 40 regional training centers in the provinces, which will be in place when the newly-revived Philippine Sports Institute becomes operational by January 1, 2017.
Ramirez discussed the PSC’s plans following a two-day consultative meeting with local government units at the Philsports Complex in Pasig.
“If this pushes through, we won’t be involved in regionals. We will focus on elite athletes,” said Cojuangco.Peter Atencio
Ramirez is upbeat about this after many LGUs expressed their interest.
“We’re very excited about this. This will be a true grassroots development program. We have people in place. We will have development in the provinces,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez said around 20 of the centers will be located in Luzon, while 10 will be in the Visayas region. The other 10 will be in the Mindanao region.
Initially, around 16 areas were identified. But more LGUs got interested, according to Ramirez.