There will be 20 sports disciplines that the Philippine Sports Commission will handle under the National Sports Development Program.
Commissioner Ramon Fernandez said they are now in the process of determining which disciplines can fall under the NSDP, when the PSC launches it this January.
“This goes all the way to 2020. We will have 20 focus sports,” said Fernandez.
The programs under the NSDP will be done with the support of the Department of Education and the local government units.
The NSDP will focus more on the agency’s efforts to strength the country’s grassroots development program, which will expand the PSC’s mandate once it is implemented in the coming years.
For the moment, Ramirez will head the NSDP, but an executive director will be appointed later on.
When the PSC was created in 1998, the agency only had two bureaus—the administration and finance and the support services.
At that time, most of the PSC’s support was mostly focused on elite level sports.
With the third bureau in place, the agency will be able to attend to the needs of the athletes and coaches not only at the grassroots’ level, but at the elite level at the same time.
The creation of the Philippine Sports Institute and the upcoming construction of the Philippine Sports Training Center in Rosales, Pangasinan in the middle of the year, will make the activities of the NSDP possible, according to PSC officials.
