Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia said national athletes will be sent to China as soon as the PSC and Chinese sports officials sign a new memorandum of agreement this March.

Garcia said Chinese ambassador to the Philippines Liu Jianchao is making arrangements so that Filipino athletes will be able to get the best training and use the best equipment possible when they go there.

“It is the ambassador who is making the arrangements. We already received confirmation that this will happen in the third week of March,” said Garcia.

The PSC revealed that Indonesia also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese sports officials for the same purpose.

Garcia explained that the new agreement will improve on a previous deal forged during the time of former PSC chairman William Ramirez.

Under the agreement, athletes from various sports disciplines can be sent to specific provinces for training.

Meanwhile, the agreement forged between the Indonesian Sports Council and the Chinese Olympic Committee also aims to prepare Indonesia’s athletes for the upcoming SEA Games, and next year’s London Olympics, according to reports published in the Jakarta Post.

Indonesia sports chief Rita Subowo and Chinese Olympic Committee vice president Yu Zaiqing signed the agreement last week in China.

Nine different sports are prioritized in the agreement: diving, wushu, badminton, gymnastics, weightlifting, table tennis, shooting, boxing and judo.

Reports said that officials of PRIMA, which is Indonesia’s program for top-tier athletes, will visit China’s nine sports federations in February in a bid to synchronize with the Filipinos’ training schedules.

Meanwhile, the PSC will have to rely on rent income in order to come up with new sources of funds.

Garcia said this is possible after raising discussions about on belt-tightening measures, which the government sports agency is planning to impose this year.

This means that the venues around the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, the Philsports Complex in Pasig City and the national training camp in Baguio can be leased by groups and companies for their events.

Peter Atencio, Manila Standard Today