POC board member Aranas claimed that up to this date no financial reports from the 30th SEA Games were received from PHISGOC.

On Wednesday, Aranas and Athletics Chief Philip Ella Juico requested PHISGOC for a comprehensive report for the concluded SEA Games that were approved during the POC general assembly.

PHISGOC was given until October 10 to comply with the request as proposed by Aranas and Juico.

According to sports officials, they were only invoking the tripartite agreement signed last August 14, 2019 which was a prerequisite for the release of the Php 6 billion budget SEA Games fund which was signed by PSC Chairman William Ramirez, POC President Rep. Abraham Tolentino, and the PHISGOC CEO Ramon Suzara.

“There was a tripartite agreement by no less than our current president that there is supposed to be reportorial requirements from PHISGOC. They were supposed to tell us about the rights, the TV rights, sponsorships, any transactions involved. Oversight dapat doon ang POC. It never happened,” Aranas said in a press conference on Saturday.

“Everybody must comply with the agreement, including the PHISGOC submitting periodic progress reports before, during, and after the SEA Games. This includes finance, which was never done. This is being carried over too far into the future,” Juico said. 

“We [the POC] are exposing ourselves to risk as we keep on delaying this,” he added.

With the games being concluded ten months already, Aranas questioned why the organizing committee is taking too much time for the submission of the reports.

“Why is it taking so long for financial accounting? They have no business holding on to the financial records, cash, utang, or whatever because the SEA Games is long finished. The very purpose for which it was created is already completed,” said Aranas.

However, Tolentino cited that the reason for the delay is because of the pandemic that is currently happening. 

In addition, the POC President is in no rush for the reports to be submitted by PHISGOC and said that he is not in favor of the deadline, contrary to the decision during the POC general assembly.

“Of course, everyone is looking forward to a clean and fair financial accounts, however, I am not attempting to put more burden on the accounting [of PHISGOC],” Tolentino said in a statement.

The issue may be brought to the Congress as House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano acted as the PHISGOC Chief according to Weightlifting’s Monico Puentevella.

“Sooner or later, the Congress or even the Senate will look into this,” Volleyball Head Joey Romasanta said. 

“We in the POC will have to show up and explain ourselves. So this is something we can’t ignore,” he added.