National Sports Summit 2020

ACOUPLE of weeks back, I wrote about the upcoming National Sports Summit 2020 organized by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). There are other developments in the PSC’s programs aside from the conduct of the National Sports Summit. Among them are the National Training Center and the hosting of the Batang Pinoy Games in Manila.

“National Training Center among priorities of the PSC again,” was on the headline. This project is a long time coming, but as Chairman Ramirez reiterated in his interview, “We are doing our best to make this longtime dream come true.” Sports patron alike is also hopeful for this becoming a reality to serve its purpose for the current and future Filipino athletes.

On the proposed National Sports Summit 2020 on February 27-28, 2020, at the PICC in Manila, its objective is to have an exchange of ideas among the various sports stakeholders on the direction of national sports from grassroots to elite training. The expected output is commitments that can become action plans.

Key areas that they wish to cover are:

1. Status of Grassroots sports in schools and local government units

2. State of the high-performance training among Filipino athletes,

3. Sports legislations, Governance, and Leadership in Philippine sports,

4. Sports management and Sports Science and Research.

With this extensive line-up of topics, this summit looks promising.

Aside from environmental advocacy aligned with sports programs, several issues and topics need to be addressed and discussed in the summit.

On grassroots sports: A roadmap on the direction of grassroots sports programs which can serve as the working template for all LGU’s to emulate;

On Sports legislations: A bill supporting the passage into law of the Philippine Sports Institute as the implementing body under the PSC for all grassroots related programs and activities;

On Governance and leadership: Empowering the LGUs through DILG in supporting the roadmap for grassroots sports;

Athletes training and sports management, including sports science and research, has been addressed with the working partnership of PSC and USSA (United States Sports Academy).

These are just several issues and agenda we wish to surface to the National Sports Summit 2020. The summit is the perfect avenue to lobby and solicit support from the national agencies, legislators, and other partners.

As Henry Ford has put forth: “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”

May this summit see us all work together towards a successful sports direction for the nation.