POC president: SEA Games mishaps exaggerated
PHIL IPPI NE Oly mpic Commit tee (POC) president Abraham “Bambol” Tolent ino sa id on Wednesday he is puzzled why some have been supposedly exaggerating the mishaps in the countr y’s hosting of t he 30t h Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
“It’s baff ling that minor lapses were made to look like big issues, instead of giv ing our support for t he at hletes and for the countr y. These are happening not only in the Philippines but i n ot her cou nt r ies host i ng major events,” he said in an inter v iew wit h radio station Radyo Inquirer.
Tolentino, also the representative of t he 8t h Dist r ic t of Cav ite, s a id a number of g l itches t hat i nconvenienced foreig n at h letes si nce t hei r arriva l in t he countr y for t he games was only “normal”, especia lly since a “historica l” 56 sports were included in t he sports meet.
“All of t hese have been addressed and it’s good these were already given attention,” he said.
Tolent ino a lso hai led t he countr y for host i ng t his yea r’s SE A Ga mes wit h just a P7.5-bi l l ion ($147.5 million) budget.
In other countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, he said the budget was a lmost double even if there were only 30 to 45 sports included in the games.
He then ca lled on the public to be united wit h organising committees and to be proud of how the countr y hosts big events.
“We are ca lling on the people to be united.
“This only happens seldom, only in over 10 years.
“Let’s not only win as one, [but let us a lso] stand as one.
“Let us be proud of how we host event s. L et us not [ c r it ic i s e ] just because we don’t have any thing else to do, or say things that would bring us down. Let us ta lk about our shortcomings later,” sa id t he POC president.