‘Senate eyes early 2020 okay of PHL High School for Sports’

THE Senate is looking to have fullblown deliberations on, and to quickly approve, a bill setting up a Philippine High School for Sports (PHSS) at the New Clark City (NCC), by early 2020, according to Sen. Sherwin T. Gatchalian.

“We are targeting January of next year, at least the rollout, the law is being discussed in the Senate, the House [of Representatives] is also in unison with this proposal. Hopefully, we get the bill approved by this year or early part of next year and we’ll roll out in 2020,” said Gatchalian.

The lawmaker, who is one of the key sponsors of Senate Bill 1086, or the PHSS Act, made the pronouncement in a recent television interview.

Besides Gatchalian, those who vowed full support for speedy passage of the bill setting up the PHSS are Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sens. Pia Cayetano and Christopher Go.

“With the outstanding showing this SEA [Southeast Asian] Games, I think it’s logical to move forward with grassroots development of sports and [a] high school for sports will be a vehicle to develop our athletes from the grassroots and also from an early age,” said Gatchalian.

“If you want world-class athletes you have to let them experience world-class facilities. So it’s just fitting to put the high school in New Clark City, in Capas, Tarlac,” he added.

The NCC’s first phase—where the SEA Games participants enjoy world-class billeting at the Athletes’ Village is located— has been drawing praise since the Games began November 30. It also hosts the internationally certified Aquatics Center, and track and field arena.

The students of the proposed high school for sports will be scholars, and it “will be a regular high school but its important feature are the sports facilities,” the senator said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Asked how the school will be funded, Gatchalian revealed that the plan is to attract corporate sponsors, who he said will be the “main sponsors of the event.”

He adds that “we will also welcome international donors .... A lot of international donors want to develop the sporting event, the sporting culture, but definitely the academics will come from government [which] will fund the academics...[and] the stipend that will be given to the athletes.”

While the Philippine High School for the Arts in Mount Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna, has produced thousands of outstanding artists across several fields for nearly four decades and the Philippine Science High School leads dozens of locally funded science high schools, the Philippines has had no other specialized high school with focus on sports development. ‘Serendipitous’

ANOTHER major champion of the Senate bill for a PHSS, Sen. Pia Cayetano, said in a separate statement that the country’s hosting of the SEA Games was “serendipitous,” given the Filipino athletes’ remarkable performance, topping the medal tally consistently since Day 1.

“The people will see for themselves that we made an amazing decision to host it here. I’d like to believe that this is a legacy that we will leave behind,” said Cayetano, herself a former national volleyball player and sister of House Speaker Alan Cayetano, chairman of the Phisgoc in charge of the SEA Games.

The lawmaker authored and cosponsored SB1086, which seeks to establish a national academy for sports in the country that can train talented young athletes in their respective sports while still allowing them to pursue other educational tracks.