PSC BITES BULLET
PHILIPPINE sports would be further forced to take a sidestep—worse be at standstill—unless the casinos go operational. “With no money from Pagcor [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.], that will be the end of the elite and grassroots program,” Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William Ramirez told the Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum that went online for the first time amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
With casinos still shuttered, Pagcor has no earnings, thus, it could not remit generous contributions to the PSC’S National Sports Development Fund (NSDF), one of the sports agency’s two coffers that funds elite sports and major programs. The Pagcor remits 5 percent of its net revenues to the PSC.
Before the lockdown, the Pagcor was remitting an average monthly share of P150 million to the PSC. In March, the figures went down to P99 million.
In April, the Pagcor contribution crashed rock bottom to P9 million.
As a result, the PSC had no recourse but to slash 50 percent of the national athletes and coaches’ monthly allowance, a bitter pill to swallow for those who were feted as national treasures when they dominated the 30th Southeast Asian Games the country hosted only last December.
“I’m not sure if they [Pagcor] could still give us this May, June, July...,” Ramirez said.
Top athletes receive P45,000 a month from the PSC, while those in the training pool get P10,000 each.
With the government scraping all available funds to keep the economy afloat and support the people’s need during the pandemic, the national budget could not spare some elbow room for the PSC.
“There is no space for us [PSC],” Ramirez lamented. “Even our GAA [General Appropriations Act] budget was realigned to other [more important] purposes.”
Ramirez agreed that it would be reasonable to write off the second half of the sporting year. Major events, like the Philippine National Games and Batang Pinoy, as well as participation in major foreign competitions, have been shelved since March.
Even the Tokyo Olympics campaign was not spared despite the PSC allocating P100 million for the qualification and training of hopefuls to the Tokyo Games that were postponed for 2021.
“We are bound to support only those who have the potential to qualify and win medals in Tokyo,” he said.
Ramirez also said that even if a vaccine is discovered and casinos are opened, the PSC would still have to crawl back to normalcy in its operations.
“If the vaccine arrives and the games resume, we couldn’t fund it,” he said.
But Ramirez provided a silver lining to the crisis. “Our commitment is that once our collection from Pagcor resumes, we will return to normal,” he said.
The PSA Forum—presented by San Miguel Corp., Amelie Hotel, Braska Restaurant, Pagcor and Go For Gold and powered by Smart—went virtual for the first time on Tuesday.
The forum was suspended in late February as the members focused on the PSA Annual Awards last March 6. But the lockdown overran the resumption of the weekly program, just like every other event all over the world.