Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose Cojuangco lamented the sorry state of Filipino athletes who work out in makeshift gyms and eat cup noodles for fuel.
“How can we expect them to win if they are eating cup noodles?” he asked during the hearing of the Senate committee on sports headed by Senator Manny Pacquiao.
Cojuangco is pushing for the establishment of a national sports training center as well as the creation of the Department of Sports.
A decent sports facility would cost at least PHP3.5 billion to build.
“I really believe from the beginning, unless we house our athletes and see them every day and take care of them every day, we will not be able to get them to do what has to be done,” Cojuangco said in a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Philippine Sports Commission chairman William Ramirez said that the country can’t produce many good athletes because of the lack of funds.
