Vietnam SEA Games on; Thailand AIMAG off

MANILA, Philippines — Good news and bad news.

The Hanoi Southeast Asian Games is pushing through in May next year while the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games slated in Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand in March was pushed to 2023 due to health and safety considerations, according to Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Bambol Tolentino.

“We are expecting both governments of Thailand and Vietnam to make the official announcements next week,” said Tolentino.

The SEA Games Federation has given Vietnam until this month to decide if it will push through with the hosting of the biennial event, which was already postponed this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And Hanoi’s answer is a go.

“I believe it would be in the latter part of May 2022,” said the congressman from Tagaytay.

As a result, Tolentino said the additional budget amounting to P650 million that the House and Senate agreed to add to the Philippine Sports Commission’s coffers in 2022 would have to be reduced.

Tolentino wooed congressmen and senators for the additional budget from general appropriations to fund Filipino athletes’ preparation and participation in the Beijing Winter Olympics (P5 million, Feb. 4 to 20), AIMAG (P150 million), The World Games (P10 million, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, July 7 to 22), Huangzhou Asian Games (P270 million, Sept. 10 to 25) and Shantou Asian Youth Games (P15 million, Dec. 20 to 28).

Tolentino also called for an additional P200 million for the SEA Games where the Philippines is the defending overall champion.