Tagaytay or Mt. Makiling for PSTC site?

In the eyes of two leading congressmen with solid backgrounds in sports, the soon-to-be-built Philippine Sports Training Center (PSCT) should be located in a land that sits on high elevation.

Tagaytay Rep. Bambol Tolentino is batting for his hometown as venue for the PSTC, whose creation became a law recently with President Rodrigo Duterte leading the way for its construction.

“Tagaytay is the ideal place because of its high altitude and it is near Metro Manila,” Tolentino, who is the Philippine Olympic Committee chairman and high-ranking official of cycling, chess and kickboxing.

Tolentino said that there is “an available area of a minimum 20-hectare land” that can house the national athletes.

“High altitude is a must in the training of our athletes,” he added.

Manila Rep. Manny Lopez, formerly the head of the amateur boxing program, is also looking at a different site as alternative.

“We don’t have to look further because Mt. Makiling is just at the end of the (SLEX) highway,” said Lopez, a firm believer in high-altitude training.

“Athletes from the former East Germany trained in high elevation. It is tried and tested,” Lopez said.

Tagaytay has an elevation of 2,300 feet while Makiling is higher at 3,500 feet. Baguio City, the obvious choice, is more than 5,000 feet but has already become crowded and polluted owing to the deluge of tourists from the low lands.

(Nick Giongco)