Different brands of uniforms for RP bets

Filipino athletes will wear different brands of competition uniforms for the 23rd Southeast Asian Games scheduled Nov. 27 to Dec. 5.

While athletes from 10 sports will carry Accel uniforms, the others will use brands of their choice when they show up in their respective competition venues.

Accel has only agreed to sponsor athletes from 10 sports – archery, boxing, bowling, lawn tennis, traditional boat race, softball, snooker, rowing, Muay Thai and volleyball.

Asics will be there for the footwear of some athletes while Adidas and Nike, probably the world’s biggest manufacturers of sports apparel, are not sponsoring any.

Providing the athletes their competition uniforms used to be the job of the Philippine Olympic Committee. But it was recently transferred to the Philippine Sports Commission.

"The problem is that the transfer came a little late when we can no longer approach the possible sponsors," said PSC executive director Atty. Guillermo Iroy.

"And this is the result. Accel sa itaas tapos Asics ang sapatos ng iba. But this will only cover 10 sports. The rest will wear brands of their choice and the PSC will buy them," said Iroy.

"We only have less than two months so wala na kaming malapitan na sponsors kaya aasa na lang kami sa discounts.

"So Accel ang iba, preferred brands ang iba," he added.

Iroy said the government sports agency will spend as much as P15 million for the competition uniforms of the close to 900 Filipino athletes in the SEA Games.