“If the trend continues, we should be short of around P70 million in funds,” Garcia told a handful of scribes late Friday.

The PSC just received its latest remittance of under P40 million and Garcia attributes this to the bad press the country has been receiving from the bus hijacking at the Luneta and the bus bombing in Makati recently.

The past few months, Garcia noted, the PSC has been receiving an average of P45 million from the Pagcor, the bulk of which goes to the maintenance and operations of the facilities that are controlled by the PSC like the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, Ultra in Pasig and Teacher’s Camp in Baguio.

But, most of all, Garcia is concerned about the effect it would cause to the national athletes, who will be revving up for the 2011 Southeast Asian Games that will be held in Indonesia in November.

The PSC has earmarked P400 million for the training and overseas exposure of athletes being groomed to join the SEAG team and Garcia said they are finding ways to cut back on every expense possible.

“The travel advisory issued by foreign countries will affect the revenue (of the Pagcor),” said Garcia.

The PSC gets a five percent share of the net sales of the Pagcor although pro-PSC personalities are of the opinion that it should be five percent of the gross.

Through the years, the PSC and the Pagcor have been debating over which interpretation of the law should be upheld.

“Anything that we save will go to the athlete,” added Garcia, revealing that since he and the new set of commissioners assumed office last July, the PSC has managed to save millions.

Nick Giongco, Manila Bulletin