Loyzaga upbeat on capability of first-time SEA Games host Cambodia

MANILA, Philippines – Despite several confusion regarding the technical handbook and changes on matters concerning the participation for the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, Philippine delegation chief Joaquin “Chito” Loyzaga is confident that everything is in place for the safe travel, arrival and stay of Team Philippines in the biennial slated May 6-17.

"All preparations are in place. Aside from the small problems, especially the technical handbooks, which is understandable because it is Cambodia's first time to host the SEA Games, everything is fine. We already submitted the entry by numbers, then the entry by names deadline is on Saturday (March 11). Hopefully, we will complete everything, although there are some sports associations like swimming that have internal disputes and have just finished tryouts," said Loyzaga, also the president of the baseball federation, during the Tabloids Organization in Philippine Sports, Inc. (TOPS) “Usapang Sports” Thursday at the PSC Conference Room inside the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Malate, Manila.

"With close coordination with the Philippine Sports Commission, the allowances, our requests for training and competition uniforms, have already been approved. Yung athlete’s village maayos at malapit lang sa competition venue kaya transportation problem is less in our concern.

"As for the hosting, actually, almost all the member countries are confused because there are many changes, but we have to understand the fact that Cambodia is hosting the Games for the first time. Pero so far, yung maliliit na gusot naaayos naman during our meetings especially the Wi-Fi sa athlete’s village. Siniguro naman nilang meron during the duration of the Games,” stressed Loyzaga in the weekly sports forum sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission and Behrouz Persian Cuisine.

Based on the available names submitted by participating sports association, the number of the delegation members have reached 1,300, but Loyzaga insisted that this will change due to late submission of other national sports associations (NSAs).

“Yung number na ito syempre titignan pa naming yan. Ang masasagot kasi ng PSC atleta lang, isang coach at isang assistant. Pag sumobra rito, pwedeng isama pero kargo na ng respective NSA,” added Loyzaga.

According to Loyzaga, the Philippine Olympic Committee urged NSAs to fill all the slots given by the organizers to ensure that the country has more chances to win medals.

"There are rules in several sports that out of 10 events, the other country can only participate in five or seven events, so lamang na ang host na pwedeng salihan lahat. So it became our battle cry at the POC to fill as much as possible all he available events for our athletes.

"Actually, we at the POC has no longer impose criteria for the athletes, we let the NSAs choose their best and deserving athletes. Request lang naming gawin ninyong open ang selection process and tryouts so that everyone can participate and select those who are worthy for SEAG slots," said Loyzaga.

Loyzaga refused to give a prediction on how many gold medals the Team Philippines could win, but said duplicating the performance in the Vietnam edition is already a great achievement for the delegation.

"We have lost many sports, there are new sports that we hardly play, the impact is huge. But hopefully, if we can perform just like in Vietnam, malaking achievement na sa atin,” said Loyzaga, also currently the POC treasurer.