Capas, Tarlac—While ongoing preparations for the 30th Southeast Asian Games are almost finished in New Clark City, getting the facilities ready in other venues is almost at a standstill.
This has disappointed Philippine Sports Commission Chairman William Ramirez when he and members of his board visited the places that have been tapped inside the Subic Bay Freeport Zone as venues for the biennial meet.
“Wala pang ginagawa,” said Ramirez when he stepped into the beach front area at the Boardwalk along Dewey Blvd., which will be the site of the triathlon competitions.
The Boardwalk will also be used for duathlon, open water swimming and modern pentathlon and PSC officials noted the lack of sign boards declaring the area as a site for the Games.
Ramirez, who is also the Chef de Mission of the national team, paid a surprise visit to the many facilities of the Games on the eve of the signing of a tripartite agreement with the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee.
The agreement will pave the way for the release of the P6-billion budget that PHISGOC needs in its operations.
Joining Ramirez in the visit were commissioners Ramon Fernandez, Charles Maxey and Arnold Agustin. Deputy Chef de Mission Stephen Fernandez was also around.
The PSC chief took note of the debris and the trash that have been collected in certain areas around the beach.
Ramirez also expressed disappointment when he and three other commissioners went to Remy Field and its tennis courts, where they saw that renovation work was still in progress.
At the Subic Bay Exposition and Convention Center, Ramirez noted that the rooms that will be used for muay, table tennis and pencak silat are still bare.
“We will double check on this. We will take this up during the tripartite meeting. We will find out when work will start here,” Ramirez said.
On the other hand, the Subic gymnasium will be the site of sepak takraw and it was empty when agency officials took a peek from their assigned vehicles.
Meanwhile, the track oval is already finished and is ready for use by national athletes from many discplines over at New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.
The venue managers of the Bases and Conversion and Development Authority said this after giving PSC officials a tour.
Members of the national athletics team were supposed set foot on the oval for training on Aug. 19, and do their workouts there. But this has been reset for Aug. 27.
On the other hand, the final tryouts for the national athletics’ squad are slated on Sept. 1.
The aquatics center is almost done and needs only a few finishing touches to be completed. The water at the training pool has already been treated.
The competition pool will be the next one to have its water treated.