MANILA: The Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organising Committee (PHISGOC) is in a race against time to be ready for the 30th SEA Games.
With several competitions like football, floorball and polo already underway ahead of the opening ceremony on Saturday (Nov 30), a lot of building work is still taking place.
Bernama observed workers erecting scaffolding in front of the Rizal Memorial Stadium where a men’s football match between Malaysia and Myanmar was due to take place.
Even more surprising is that the media centre building where press conferences will be held is still a work in progress: walls are yet to be plastered, the floor looks uneven and unfinished, and people are susceptible to mosquito bites.
Since several days ago, the local and international media have been reporting about the logistics problems a number of teams like the Philippines women’s football team, as well as the Timor-Leste, Cambodia and Thailand men’s football teams, have had to deal with.
The media reported that three Thailand team members were given a hotel room which could only accommodate two people, while it also had to cancel a training session at the Biñan Football Stadium because of (bad) traffic.
Meanwhile the Cambodian team shared a picture of having to sleep on the conference room floor of a hotel because no rooms were available for them, reported a local portal, Inquirer.net.
Via a statement yesterday, the PHISGOC apologised for the problems and promised to address all the weaknesses.
This is the
fourth time the Philippines is hosting the SEA Games; the last three times were
in 1981, 1991 and 2005.
Over 8,000 athletes from 10 Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries and Timor-Leste are expected to
compete in 56 sports at the biennial event from Nov 30 – Dec 11. – Bernama
