{"id":238252,"date":"2019-11-24T05:18:58","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T10:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=238252"},"modified":"2019-11-24T05:18:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T10:18:58","slug":"palace-assures-sea-games-athletes-of-memorable-stay-in-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/11\/24\/palace-assures-sea-games-athletes-of-memorable-stay-in-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace assures SEA Games athletes of \u2018memorable\u2019 stay in PH"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: ATHLETIC STADIUM. The Athletic Stadium of the New Clark City sports complex in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac is expected to be finished by the end of August. The stadium was shown to members of the media by officials of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority during a familiarization tour on Friday (July 19, 2019). The facility will serve as the hub of the 30th Southeast Asian Games slated to be held on November 30, 2019 to December 11, 2019. (PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Sunday assured the athletes of the 30th Southeast Asian Games that they will have a \u201cpleasant, productive, and memorable\u201d stay in the Philippines, this year\u2019s host of the biennial regional multi-sport event.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe are not promising that the Games will run without a hitch, given the countless athletes who will participate and represent their respective countries,\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.<\/div>\n
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\u201cBut we will exercise due diligence in making sure everyone will have a pleasant, productive, and memorable stay in the Philippines,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n
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Panelo made the assurance following several complaints from foreign football teams about the Philippines\u2019 supposed ill-preparedness for this year\u2019s SEA Games.<\/p>\n

Football teams of Myanmar, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, and Thailand vented frustrations over issues concerning transportation, lodging, and training upon their arrival in Manila ahead of the competition.<\/p><\/div>\n

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In a statement, the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) acknowledged the mistakes and apologized for the inconvenience the athletes had experienced.<\/p>\n

Phisgoc, led by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, vowed to \u201cdo better\u201d by ensuring \u201cproper coordination of the arrival details, airport welcome and transportation provisions of all international teams to their respective assigned hotels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phisgoc explained that it was able to send Timor-Leste football team to Hotel Jen, after they were mistakenly brought to Century Hotel, which is a few minutes away from the athletes\u2019 accommodation.<\/p>\n

With regard to the Cambodian football team, Phisgoc said transportation was \u201cimmediately provided,\u201d despite the change in their arrival details that were relayed late to the Phisgoc Games Services Department.<\/p>\n

However, Phisgoc stressed that it requested the Cambodian team to wait in an air-conditioned private hotel conference room to let them \u201crest and feel comfortable\u201d while waiting for their rooms since they arrived ahead of the standard 2 p.m. check-in time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d it said in a press statement.<\/p>\n

Phisgoc said the incidents involving the four foreign football teams would serve as a \u201cconstant reminder for us as organizers to be more diligent.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

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“The incident with the two teams remains a constant reminder for us as organizers to be more diligent. We owe it to our guests and our countrymen,” it added.<\/p>\n

For Panelo, incidents of delays in transport and accommodation happen in international sports and games \u201cby reason of the number of countries and athletes involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palace official, nevertheless, said the government would not make any excuses, and would instead strive harder to avoid a repeat of such incidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee has already apologized to our athlete-guests from Timor-Leste, Myanmar, and Cambodia for the inconvenience they experienced when they arrived in the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Panelo added.<\/p>\n

Panelo also looked forward to Phisgoc\u2019s commitment to improve its preparations for the upcoming SEA Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wish all the participating athletes good luck and look forward to their excellent and hopefully world record-breaking performances,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Panelo was thankful that there is no report of any incident jeopardizing the athletes\u2019 safety and health.<\/p>\n

Around 8,750 athletes from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor Leste, Singapore, and Vietnam are expected to compete in 530 events in 56 sports.\u00a0(With reports from Ivan Steward Saldajeno\/PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Sunday assured the athletes of the 30th Southeast Asian Games that they will have a \u201cpleasant, productive, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":238253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","category-sports","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238254,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238252\/revisions\/238254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}