By Mario Casayuran
Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III said Wednesday that despite last minute hassles, the Philippines is better prepared as host of the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III (Alvin Kasiban / MANILA BULLETIN)
Sotto, a bowler who competed in a past SEA Games, said critics should not make an issue out of the supposed late preparations and uncoordinated food preparations for the SEA Games participants.
In the SEA Games he had participated in, Sotto said the host country did not take care of the athletes from other countries in order to ensure the defeat of their rivals.
Despite this, Sotto said he and other members of the bowling team raked in gold medals, explaining that his bowling team participated in eight events where they harvested seven golds and one silver in the late ‘70s.
Sotto said that the Philippines is a better host because “sobra tayong (we are overly) hospitable.”
“Mga kontra anya kay Pangulong Duterte at kay Phisgoc chairman Speaker Alan Cayetano ang mga nagpapalaki sa sinasabing isyu sa SEA games,” he said.
(Only those against President Duterte and Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano, chairman of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee , are the ones exaggerating the issues surrounding the SEA Games.)
Sotto blamed social media for immediately reporting the issues without any basis, saying those inflating the hiccups surrounding the preparations for the SEA Games want to make bigger issues after the Games.
Sotto said is that it is not the obligation of the host country to feed the foreign participants, adding that when he participated in the SEA Games, they themselves spent for their meals and for other expenditures such as board and lodging.