THE PHILIPPINE Sports Commission is set to remove several athletes from its priority list either for their subpar performances or their failure to compete in this year’s Philippine National Games (PNG).
The PSC declined to reveal the names of the athletes from the more than 160 included in the list other than saying they were over 20 of them.
The government sports agency had required all athletes under its payroll to compete in the annual PNG.
It also expects the athletes especially those in the priority list to perform well in the meet.
PSC commissioner Jolly Gomez, however, clarified the athletes will remain in the PSC payroll, but will not receive the maximum amount of P40,000 a priority athlete is getting.
“If you are a priority athlete, and you don’t win in the PNG, that doesn’t mean that you are removed from the payroll. You go back to how much an athlete not in the priority list is getting,” said Gomez during the weekly PSC media briefing.
Rubilen Amit was supposed to be removed from the priority athletes list after bowing to 13-year-old Chezka Centeno twice in the PNG billiards event.
The former women’s 10-ball world champion, however, was able to bounce back after winning the bronze medal in the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Incheon, Korea.
Long jumper Marestella Torres, a Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, has also begged off from joining the priority list of athletes as she is reportedly pregnant.
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