Lawmakers vow to speed up creation of Department of Sports

LAWMAKERS Michael Romero, Mark Aeron Sambar and Conrado Estrella 3rd promised to expedite the passing of a resolution that would transform the current Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) into a Department of Sports.

“We want to be proactive. It’s about time that we have a Department of Sports to be able to lay down a comprehensive program that may lead us to our quest for gold in the Olympic Games. It is the solution to solve this problem in sports. Let us try to be No. 1 again in Southeast Asia,” said Romero of Partylist Pacman 1, during the Top-Level Consultative Meeting on Development Plan for Philippine Sports at the Century Park Hotel on Thursday.

He cited massive infrastructure projects, grassroots development program, sound financial resources and retirement benefits for the country’s elite athletes as among the necessary tools that should be included in the Master Plan that the PSC, Philippine Olympic Committee ( POC) and sports stakeholders are trying to lay down in the two- day meeting.

Meanwhile, Estrella, the chairman of the Committee on Youth and Sports Development in the House of Representatives said that a Department of Sports would provide the government a wider range of capability in achieving sports development.

“The master plan should look into where we are now in international competitions,” Estrella said.

The other sports officials present in the meeting were POC President Jose Cojuangco Jr., Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas President Joey Romasanta, Philippine Sports Association for the Differently Abled President Michael Barredo, bowling great Paeng Nepomuceno, Vivian Manila of WNCA, Ricky Santos of the Philippine Basketball Association, Fr. Vic Calvo of the NCAA, Philippine Weightlifting Association former president Monico Puentevella and Sen. Manny Pacquiao.