SPORTS SECRETARY. Sec. William Ramirez of the Philippine Sports Commission says that one of the President’s marching orders was to establish a genuine grassroots sports program “as a vehicle for anti-drug education program”. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY — The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) announced that satellite offices of the the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) will be put up in the regions to focus more on the genuine grassroots sport programs.
William Ramirez, chief of PSC said that with a budget of P25 million this year PSI will now prioritize a genuine grassroots sport programs in public and private schools starting on October 1 giving every region a sports program.
“We will be signing a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to put up regional training centers for the athletes,”he said.
Ramirez also said that PSI will have a national training director who will monitor the training of the national athletes and supervise the 40 regional training directors in the country.
He said that the regional training centers will apply the grassroots program now and will be managed by a regional coordinator in the region.
“We would focus on the community sports because we are able to develop young children to become a better citizen and if they are talented athletes then we can push them in scholarships and become a national athletes,” he said.
The PSI which is located at Philsports Arena, will now have a medical director, Dr. George Canlas to look over a sports medicine, strength and conditioning sports psychology, athletes career education and athlete development.
To strengthen the commission, the PSC will have a national consultative meeting in Philsports Arena on September 22-23, together with the local government sport coordinators to set the directions of the Philippine sports.
“We will organize the schedules of the competitions here like the Batang Pinoy, Palarong Pambansa, and other national games so within six years there will be a clear schedule on competition all over the country,” he said.
Ramirez said that PSC now will focus more on the athletes in communities and help them to improve, rather than to rely on the elite athlete in different sports organizations to avoid chaos.
He said that to join and win the Olympics, athletes should be provided with a good environment like excellent coach, clean environment, and enough food.
“It’s not easy to join Olympics. Perhaps if we provide the athletes basic requirements of an athlete then maybe they will not be getting only silver, but gold medal,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ramirez said that they will also emphasize on the indigenous games especially in Mindanao.
“We will also revive the Mindanao games, bringing a lot of cultures to the region and train athletes,” he said. (davaotoday.com)
