GMA proposes P220M for PSC in 2008

A day after failing to mention sports in her State of the Nation Address, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday approved a budget of P220 million for the Philippine Sports Commission next year.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. made the announcement after emerging from the 26th board meeting of the National Economic Development Authority yesterday.

The amount is 47 percent more than the allotted P149 million for the PSC this year. It is part of the P1.227 trillion proposed budget for 2008.

Congress, however, will still deliberate on the budget, before it is finally released.

The increase is seen as a boost for the country, which will press its bid for a first-ever Olympic gold medal when the Games are held in Beijing, China next year.

After the Philippines won its first overall Southeast Asian Games title in December 2005, Arroyo directed sports officials, led by PSC chairman William Ramirez to spearhead the drive for the gold in the Olympics.

The national government allocated P108 million in 2005 and P28 million last year when Filipino athletes managed to harvest four gold medals in the Doha Asian Games.

Among the medalists was Bacoleño boxer Joan Tipon, who captured the bantamweight gold.

Three Negrenses have accounted for the last three Olympic medals.

Of the three, boxer Mansueto Velasco of Bago City came the closest to a gold when he lost a dubious one-sided match to Bulgarian Daniel Bujilov in the light flyweight finals of the Atlanta Olympics to settle for a silver.

Velasco's older brother, Roel, won a bronze in the same category during the Barcelona Games in 1992, four years after Candoni's Leopoldo Serrantes took the bronze in Seoul, Korea.

'Good performance' will save PSC chairman Ramirez, solon says

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, first vice-president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, yesterday expressed optimism that outgoing Philippine Sports Commission chairman William Ramirez will be retained to spearhead the government agency because of his “good performance”.

Ramirez, along with sports commissioners Ricardo Garcia from Bacolod City, Leon Montemayor and Ambrosio De Luna have been asked by President Arroyo to tender their courtesy resignations on or before June 30.

“I am optimistic that Ramirez will still be retained because he has done a good job,” Puentevella, the chef de mission of the Philippine Team for the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, added.

“And unlike others, Ramirez is willing to resign if he is not effective anymore. That’s the difference between him and others in the government agencies,” Puentevella pointed out.

Under the leadership of Ramirez, the Philippines bagged the SEA Games overall crown in runaway fashion in Manila two years ago. The RP athletes also posted its best finish in the 2006 Doha Asian Games in 40 years, after winning four golds, one of which came courtesy of Bacoleño boxer Joan Tipon.

Puentevella is reportedly with Ramirez in China, where they accompanied the 27 national athletes, who will undergo training there. China will host the 2008 Olympics.

“The China program will do wonders for the athletes. That’s why we won the last SEA Games,” Puentevella said.

The Bacolod solon also predicted that China will win the Olympics next year by a mile. “So we might as well train with them,” the former PSC commissioner-turned legislator said. *Cedelf P. Tupas