RAMIREZ. contributed photo GRASSROOTS AS ENTRY POINT

ILOILO CITY — In the words of Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William “Butch” Ramirez, the grassroots sports program is the entry point to what he termed as “Philippine sports highway.”

In charting the Philippine sports highway, it’s not just about the structure. We need people who will work here full time

Citing the cases of countries with successful sports elite program, Ramirez said there must be conscious effort to solidify the grassroots program in order for the country to compete with the best in the world.

“The Philippine sports highway starts with the LGU (local government units). Without the participation of the LGU, there will be no sports development in general,” said Ramirez in a press conference here on Sunday that ushered the opening of the Visayas leg of the PSC’s Batang Pinoy at the Iloilo Sports Complex here.

“The uniqueness of Batang Pinoy is it also involves the out-of-school youth. And if we discover them, will give them international exposure. Our observation in the PSC, we’re no. 6 in terms of development in under-18 in Southeast Asia and Asia. So, we really need to focus on the grassroots to have a solid elite sports program,” he added.

Ramirez, whose grandmother is from Estanca, Iloilo, was joined by PSC commissioner Charles Maxey, Batang Pinoy director Atty. Guillermo Iroy, executive assistant to the mayor Rommel Castro and Iloilo City Youth and Sports Development chief Moises Salomon.

Ramirez said the Philippine Sports Training Center (PSTC) that President Duterte just signed into law was just the initial step in solidifying the grassroots program as they aim to build regional training centers in different parts of the country.

But the P3.5-billion budget allocated for the PSTC is not enough to sustain the program and they will need the help of private sponsors and the LGU to make it successful.

“We need the PSTC to be a state of the art. The P3.5 billion is just the initial fund. You need 10 to 20 billion to put up a state-of-the-art training center. We’re hungry for a state-of-the-art training center for 100 years. The government can’t do it alone,” said Ramirez.

“We have to do our part, create a program and find the right people. The private sector also has to help. In charting the Philippine sports highway, it’s not just about the structure. We need people who will work here full time,” he added.

The PSC donated P15 million worth of sports equipment to the province and city, which co-host the weeklong competition that goes full swing on Monday.

“We always support the grassroots program of the PSC because it has a big effect in the society. When we hosted the 2012 Batang Pinoy National Finals here, we discovered a lot of talents here and are now members of the training pool,” said Salomon.

“We have to continue this kind of program for us to discover future sports heroes in our country,” he added.

Maxey cited the girls volleyball finals in the Mindanao leg where Talaingod, a second-class municipality in Davao del Norte, pulled off a 25-15, 28-28, upset win over highly favored Davao City in their gold-medal match.

“We will definitely discover talents here like what the Talaingod team did. There are plenty of talents to be discovered at the country side,” said Maxey.

And the search for fresh talents starts on Monday when young athletes in the 19 of the 20 events slated in this weeklong competition begin their quest for glory and the chance to qualify in the National Finals this October.

Medal-rich swimming and athletics account for 28 gold medals at stake in Day 1 of the competition that drew 2,849 participants from 71 LGU.

Aside from athletics and swimming, other events to be played here are archery, arnis, badminton, basketball (boys and girls), boxing, chess, dancesport, karatedo, pencak silat, sepak takraw, softball, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, volleyball (boys, girls and beach) and futsal.