Singapore teams face catering, logistics problems

Singapore on Monday has written a letter to the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISGOC), seeking "urgent and immediate attention" regarding food, accreditation and transportation of their athletes.

According to a report by the Strait Times, Singapore Chef de Mission Juliana Seow addressed the letter to PHISGOC chief operating officer Ramon Suzara, saying Singaporean athletes have been dealing with catering and logistics issues in Manila.

“We urgently seek your urgent and immediate attention to address the situations we are facing. We had tried our best to be patient and understanding. As much as we had tried to resolve the situations ourselves as well as with our sports and you, these situations cannot continue any further as our athletes are badly affected and are not able to prepare for the games effectively,” Seow wrote in the letter dated November 24.

The letter also said the Singapore football team lodging at the Century Park Hotel was not given "sufficient halal food and had very limited food options."

Singapore's floorball team staying at Luxent Hotel and its netball team at Somerset Alabang "had to order outside food to complete their meal."

“As you may already know, nutrition is a very important part of the preparation and our athletes are starving," Seow added.

But according to her, the Singaporeans are also facing problems regarding accreditation and transportation.

“The Accreditation Centre at the airports were also not ready. We had to send our staff in our own vehicles to Football, Floorball and Netball hotels and bring their accreditation to World Trade Centre to validate and bring them back to the teams yesterday," Seow said.

"Netball competition starts today. We cannot accept this level of service and we have not gotten our vehicles in Manila. We had really tried to do this by ourselves and as more teams come, we really cannot be doing everything by ourselves," she added.

Seow asked PHISGOC for "immediate attention" regarding these matters.

“We request for your urgent and immediate attention to these matters. While we try our best to be patient and understanding, we cannot make any compromise when our athletes are affected directly. We implore you to address these situations now and we look forward to seeing positive action from your side.” — LA, GMA News

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