Press Release
August 15, 2011

Trillanes blasts Sports Commission's lack of support
to Philippine Teams in international competition

Sen. Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV called for an investigation to scrutinize and to deeply look into the budget of the Philippine Sports Commission due to its lack of financial support to the Philippine delegates in this year's Summer Universiade held in China.

"The repeated incidents of the Philippine Sports Commission's lack of support to our athletes joining international competitions have been alarming. The plight of our Philippine Dragon Boat Team who joined the World Racing Championships in Florida is not an isolated case. Our delegate to this year's Summer Universiade did not receive a single centavo from the Commission. Thus, an investigation becomes necessary to scrutinize the budget of the Commission to avoid similar occurrence in the future," said Trillanes, who is part of the country's official delegation to the 2011 Universiade.

He added, "These young athletes deserve our government's support and attention. It is very disappointing to see our delegates suffer from government's neglect and lack of support. Just imagine how heartbreaking and demoralizing it is for our athletes to compete with minimal government support or worse, receiving nothing at all."

The 26th Summer Universiade officially opened last August 12 in Shenzhen, People's Republic of China and will end on the 23rd. It is the 2nd largest multi-sports event next to the Olympics. China's President Hu Jintao graced and declared the official opening of the event.

The Philippine delegation was headed by the Federation of School Sports Association of the Philippines President David Ong and Basketball Association of the Philippines President Senator Antonio "Sonny" F. Trillanes IV.

"It is our government's duty to support our athletes and there is no excuse for failing to do so. It is an honor to witness our athletes compete in Universiade despite their adversity. The Universiade is a large gathering of University athletes from 152 countries, and I can vouch that our 90 athletes from our country's different university sports organizations are giving their best shot as they compete in their nine sports events," Trillanes added.

The Summer Universaide is held every two years and features the university athletes from around the world. Next Universiade competitions will be held in Russia (2013) and Korea (2015).

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