SEA Games fund safe with Cayetano
THE
30th Southeast Asian Games is scheduled to be held in the Philippines from November to December this year.
For several decades, Philippine sports has been fraught with mismanagement and corruption as officials line their pockets from funds that should have been spent training Filipino athletes and providing them support.
A glimmer of hope shone on Philippine sports when President Duterte appointed former senator and foreign affairs secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, to head the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC).
This early we’ve been hearing whispers about a possible plan to wrestle the chairmanship of PHISGOC away from Cayetano, so that people salivating after his post and the funds can take over.
The rumored delay of the budget is because Congress has yet to transmit the 2019 national budget bill to Malacanang, aside from raising additional funds after Congress slashed the SEA Games budget from P7.5 billion to P5 billion.
Cayetano is up to the challenge of raising the additional money needed from private sponsors and in ensuring Malacanang’s commitment of supplementing the SEA Games budget.
We can be assured that with Cayetano at the helm, the SEA Games budget will be managed and spent prudently.
What we should be worried about, is the reported attempt by the two “Butches” to unseat Cayetano from PHISGOC.
We’re referring to congressman Prospero “Butch” Pichay of the Philippine Olympic Committee, and William “Butch” Ramirez of POC.
Pichay has been suspended for 90 days by the Sandiganbayan due to graft charges filed against him over the alleged anomalous acquisition of a thrift bank when he was chairman of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA). He was indicted before the Sandigan for violating the Manual of Regulation for Banks and for three counts of graft when he allowed LWUA’s acquisition of Express Savings Bank, Inc., a thrift bank based in Laguna.
The other Butch — Ramirez — was suspended for 90 days by the Sandiganbayan last year for entering into a government contract without the approval of the PSC Board and without the benefit of public bidding.