PH apologizes to foreign athletes amid SEA Games woes

After several complaints from different foreign teams regarding hotel accommodations and airport woes, the country’s organizers for the 2019 Southeast Asia (SEA) Games issued apologies early Sunday, November 24.

“We sincerely apologize to our athlete guests from Timor-Leste, Myanmar, and Cambodia for the inconvenience caused to them by the confusion regarding their transportation and hotel arrangements,” Ramon Suzara, Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC) Chief Operating Officer said.

“While PHISGOC strives to ensure proper coordination of the arrival details, airport welcome, transportation provisions of all international teams to their respective assigned hotels, we acknowledge our shortcomings in this particular incident and vow to do better,” he continued.

Timor-Leste’s and Myanmar’s football teams complained of long hours in the airport. While some of Timor-Leste’s football team members were brought to the wrong hotel. PHISGOC, however, explained that they were able to escort the team to the right hotel after the mistake.

In a press conference, Timor-Leste’s manager, Fabiano Flora hopes that it won’t happen again in the future.

“I think all the nations deserve respect and what happened yesterday was not so beautiful, but it is okay. We just focus on the games and that’s all,” he said.

For Myanmar’s coach, Velizar Popov, talking about these issues in the press conference is “not a good image for the tournament.”

“Of course, we encountered some things in our arrival, but I don’t want to enter into it, because it’s not the most important,” Popov said.

“As to the Cambodian football team, their change in arrival details was relayed late to the PHISGOC Games Services Department,” the local organizers said, after photos in social media circulated, showing the team sleeping on the carpeted floor and chairs.

Felix Dalmas of Cambodia, in the same event, said “We had to change some things, but we prepared. We know things are not perfect, especially when you’re not [in] the home country.”

He said that “it wasn’t ideal” but his team “took it with the best spirit.”

Century Park Hotel Manila, the hotel where the Cambodian team was accommodated, aired a statement to clarify its side on the issue.

“We were told that team members from Cambodia were coming in early on November 23, 2019 the night before. As much as we wanted to accommodate the request, it was not possible due to full occupancy. Standard check out is until 12:00NN. However, as early as 8:25 AM, some members were given an early check-in due to the availability of rooms,” it said.

“As goodwill, we offered our function rooms to serve as their temporary holding area after their breakfast. We asked them if they needed more chairs but they declined, preferring the floors so they could lie down to rest. Lunch was also served to them accordingly,” the hotel added.

Thailand’s athletes also complained, this time, about food. From a rough translation of FA Thailand’s Facebook post, the group said that their meals had the same menu, over and over, and their drinking water is limited.

Century Park Hotel Manila, for its part, also addressed this issue.

“We are also coordinating with the organizers on other concerns raised by the Thai team, since part of the agreement with them is a cycle menu for the SEA Games delegation as well as two bottles of water per day to be supplied per person based on hotel industry standards,” it explained.

‘All is well’

In a post, the official Facebook page of the 2019 SEA Games stated that House Speaker and PHISGOC Chair Alan Peter Cayetano personally visited the athletes participating, including the teams that were inconvenienced to apologize. The post further said that he “assured them that the Philippine hosting will be great and meaningful for everyone.”

Cayetano also told reporters that apart from apologies, while it is not an excuse, these kinds of issues arise in such events. When he was still a Foreign Affairs secretary, he experienced something similar in traveling abroad. However, he stressed that despite being ‘ready, no one is perfect.’

Malacañang also apologized on Sunday.

“We can no longer undo what has been done. The Office of the President will not offer any excuses. As host country, we apologize for the unintentional inconvenience suffered by our athlete-guests,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.