Palace vows to support sports where country can excel

Malacañang on Thursday refused to call the Philippine team’s performance in the 26th Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia as "poor" with the government promising to support sports that the country has a strong chance of excelling.

"We commend them for their performance in the (SEA) Games. We do not view that as poor performance,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said at a press briefing.

"Certainly, there’s always room for improvement but we congratulate our Philippine contingent for their noble performance,” he added.

He said the Aquino government is bent on concentrating on sport programs where Filipino athletes excel.

Lacierda noted that by concentrating on certain sports disciplines, the country has a better chance of improving its standings in the medal standings.

"There are 52 sports associations right now, we believe that if we can concentrate on the sports that we have a strong chance of excelling and pour our support on those sports that we believe we can perform much better, I think we will have a better return on our investment,” he said.

"The President would like to see that the performance of our athletes is supported by the government funding and so yes, we will support the athletes,” he added.

The Philippines finished sixth in the SEA Games held in Indonesia bagging 36 gold medals or 7.4 per cent of the 483 total gold medals at stake.

Apart from the 36 gold, the Philippine team also brought home 55 silvers and 76 bronzes from the biennial meet. Combat sports, athletics, tennis, boxing billiards, basketball, softball, cycling and baseball are among the sports where the Filipinos excelled. <B>— JVP, GMA News</B>