Filipino athletes could tap into huge war chest for stacked 2025 calendar

MANILA, Philippines — With a massive war chest, Filipino athletes will be well-equipped when they plunge into action in several huge international tournaments in what many expect to be an exciting 2025.

Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richard Bachmann and Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino are both bracing for a busy schedule for the country that includes the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games.

Bachmann said the country is expected to receive a bigger funding of more than P1 billion for this year, which would be a significant hike to what the sports-funding agency has been receiving in the past.

The fund will come straight from the 2025 General Appropriations Act.

“This will be all for the athletes and our programs,” said Bachmann.

For Tolentino, he will convene the POC executive board on January 9 as well as the general assembly less than a week later — January 15 — to get everything started.

“Work starts in earnest,” said the Tagaytay City Mayor and PhilCycling chief.

The SEA Games is slated for December in Thailand, while the oft-postponed AIMAG will be staged in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at a still unannounced date.

Also, the country will field a lean but mean delegation in the Asian Winter Games scheduled February 7-14 in Harbin, China.

Tolentino said he expects tough opposition in Thailand.

“That will be a tough SEA Games, but I’m confident our athletes, our national sports associations will deliver in Thailand,” he said.

The country is also looking forward to Gilas Pilipinas’ FIBA Asia Cup participation and the country’s hosting of two massive meets — the FIVB World Championships set September 12-28 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum and Mall of Asia, Arena and golf’s Philippine Open slated January 23-26 at the Manila Southwoods.

Gymnastics Association of the Philippines head Cynthia Carrion also announced that the country will host the Asian Juniors Artistic Gymnastics Championships from July 12-21.

That is apart from several events such as the World Championships scheduled October 19-25 in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Caros Yulo, the Paris Olympics double gold medal winner, is set to participate in.