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Philippine sports officials found common ground on Wednesday when the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) agreed to send a lean but competitive delegation in the Laos Southeast Asian Games on December 9 to 18. Both sports agencies have been at odds for almost a year after PSC chairman Harry Angping started implementing major reforms in giving funds to national athletes and training pool members.
Harry Angping
The Wednesday meeting between Angping and POC second vice president and SEA Games Chief of Mission Mario Tanchanco, who is also the Philippine Amateur Sepak Takraw Association (PASTA) chief, proved to be fruitful after they agreed of sending a 200-strong RP delegation composed of 153 athletes and 47 officials. Both Angping and Tanchanco said that although the country will be sending one of its smallest delegations since joining the biennial event in 1997 all athletes are gold medal contenders. “This will be one of the smallest contingents ever going into an international competition but this will be the strongest as all will be fighting for the gold," said Angping after the meeting. “They are all gold and silver medalists (in the last SEA Games) and, in some instances, bronze medalists who have showed improvement before Laos." “We had a strict selection process. There are no free loaders here. All of them are deserving athletes," added Tanchanco. The bulk of the country’s delegation will come from aquatics – which have competitions in swimming, diving and water polo – with 24 athletes composed of six swimmers, five divers and the 13-member water polo squad that nearly won the gold in the 2007 edition in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. Taekwondo will have the second largest number with 17 followed by the 15 each of billiards and snooker and sepak takraw.
This will be one of the smallest contingents ever going into an international competition but this will be the strongest as all will be fighting for the gold. They are all gold and silver medalists (in the last SEA Games) and, in some instances, bronze medalists who have showed improvement before Laos.
– Harry Angping, PSC chairman
Other sports where the Philippines will be competing, with number of athletes, are: boxing (12), athletics (9), golf (7), karatedo (6), lawn tennis (6), petanque (6), archery (5), muay (5), shooting (5), cycling (4), judo (4), pencak silat (4), wushu (3), weightlifting (3) and wrestling (3). The 47 officials are spread around athletics (4), aquatics (4), archery (3), billiards and snooker (3), boxing (3), cycling (3), golf (3), judo (2), karatedo (2), muay (3), petanque (0), pencak silat (2), sepak takraw (2), shooting (4), taekwondo (3), lawn tennis (2), wrestling (2), wushu (1) and weightlifting (1). The POC before planned of sending 160 athletes and 90 officials in Laos but removed from the initial list retired or injured athletes. “In fairness to the National Sports Associations (NSAs), they really complied with the criteria of the PSC and the POC. We did not cut down the number of athletes but only removed retired or injured athletes," said Angping. The PSC chief also declined to make any medal prediction despite earlier saying that Team Philippines can only win 15 to 20 gold medals in the Laos SEA Games. “All bets are off. Let’s not talk about medals because I believe that this will be a strong team. But with these 153 athletes, they will all be fighting for the gold." They are set to submit the final list to the Laos SEA Games Organizing Committee on or before the Oct. 26 deadline. – GMANews.TV
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This will be one of the smallest contingents ever going into an international competition but this will be the strongest as all will be fighting for the gold. They are all gold and silver medalists (in the last SEA Games) and, in some instances, bronze medalists who have showed improvement before Laos. 
