THE Asean Para Sports Federation (APSF) has officially canceled the 10th Asean Para Games the Philippines was supposed to host this year.
APSF President Osoth Bhavilai said in a letter dated May 8, 2020, and addressed to all National Paralympic Committee heads that the cancellation was brought about by the Philippine Sports Commission’s (PSC) decision to channel the funding for the Games to the Philippines’s campaign against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In light of the decision of the PSC…regretfully I would like to state that the 10th Asean Para Games would be canceled officially,” Bhavilai said in the letter. “Nevertheless, we APSF would like to thank the Philippines for all efforts taken prior to the games for the preparation. We appreciate why such decision need to be made.”
The PSC was compelled to scrap all major sports events that the agency is supposed to fund the rest of the year and the Asean Para Games was tops on the list with a P400 million price tag. Also canceled were the PSC flagship programs Philippine National Games and the Batang Pinoy.
Mike Barredo, the chairman of the Philippine Paralympic Committee, earlier stated that the health and safety of the athletes could not be sacrificed and accepted the fate of the Asean Para Games which were supposed to be played last December after the 30th Southeast Asian Games but were postponed thrice and were set for October 3 to 9 this year.
The PSC Board made the drastic decision during its virtual meeting last May 3.
Bhavilai, a major general in Thailand’s military who has been the APSF president since 2016, specifically stated the Philippines’s predicament as a major reason for the cancellation but declined to comment on the biennial Games’ fate considering that holding the 10th edition in 2021 would overlap with next year’s staging which Vietnam is hosting parallel to the 31st SEA Games.
“The APSF would now be taking further steps to hold a virtual APSF Board of Governors Meeting soon to facilitate discussion on the cancellation and the necessary steps moving forward,” he said in the same letter.
The Philippines was supposed to host at least 18 sports for the 10th Asean Para Games, that were already imperiled as early as March when Malacañang sought the Athletes’ Village at the New Clark City, the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City and the Rizal Memorial Coliseum and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila as quarantine centers.
The Para Games were to be staged in the same venues used for the 30th SEA Games in Clark, Subic and Metro Manila.