PHILIPPINES Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez has issued a strong warning to national sports associations that will fail to deliver in this year’s Southeast Asian Games.
“If you don’t perform, look for your own money the next time,” said Ramirez during Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at Shakey’s Malate.
Ramirez vowed to provide full support to the NSAs without any liquidation problems as the 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia moved just eight months away.
The Philippines finished sixth overall during the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore, just a notch higher that its seventh-place finish in 2013 in Myanmar.
This year, the Philippines will be hard-pressed to do better as it prepares to host the Games in 2019, and hope to duplicate its historic performance as host and overall champion of the 2005 SEA Games.
Ramirez said he doesn’t know what to expect in Kuala Lumpur, because choosing and preparing the athletes and coaches for the Games are the jobs of the Philippine Olympic Committee and the NSAs.
“Our job is to fund. To prepare the athletes is their job,” he said.
Ramirez said the country’s bets to this year’s SEA Games must deliver and show the people that money being spent by the government is producing positive results.
“There’s pressure on what will happen in the 2017 SEA Games. Will we be number eight or number nine? I don’t know. Only the NSAs know the answer to that,” said Ramirez during the forum presented by San Miguel Corp., Accel, Shakey’s, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
“I will really tell the NSAs to perform because the people, including the senators and congressmen, are starting to ask where we really stand,” said the PSC chief.
“We are willing to support deserving NSAs and athletes all the way to the (2020) Olympics,” he added.