MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) chairman Alan Peter Cayetano maintained that preparations for the country’s hosting of the biennial meet is on track despite budget delays and negative murmurs from some sectors.
“All preparations are going well,” Cayetano said during yesterday’s launch of the Phisgoc volunteers program in Taguig.
Cayetano, however, admitted encountering problems, ranging from the delayed enactment of the national budget, which should include the P5-billion warchest for the hosting, to fears raised by naysayers about the capability to proceed with the staging.
“But of course, we do have challenges. Two of the biggest challenges is one, unity. There are still people who would rather hindi matuloy or masabotahe and I’m appealing to their sense of patriotism,” said Cayetano.
“Second challenge is funding. But with the President set to sign the budget, we hope to solve that,” he added.
The P5-billion allocated for the SEAG staging falls short of Phisgoc’s estimated cost of P6B but the Phisgoc exec said they’re augmenting it with funding from other agencies.
“We have a guaranteed P5B from the national budget and I think the DBM they are willing to give another P500m so that’s P5.5B. Then DPWH I think committed P300M so we’re getting closer to P6B,” Cayetano said.
He added that about 10 companies from the private sector have either signed up or committed as sponsors and Phisgoc is working to get some more big corporations on board.
Meanwhile, Phisgoc said it will need 12,000 volunteers for the Nov. 30-Dec. 11 Games.
The organizing body kicked off the search for volunteers with the formal launch yesterday, with celebrities from sports and entertainment on hand to pledge their support.
Among those present were basketball legend Jimmy Alapag, volleyball superstar Alyssa Valdez, and football ace Misagh Bahadoran.