Deputy Speaker Prospero Pichay assured that the national government will not operate with a reenacted budget that would drastically affect the country’s hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian Games this November.

The lawmaker from Surigao stressed that they already reached out to the senators and explained that they did not make amendments to the proposed P3.75-trillion budget this year. They, instead, just itemized the expenditures to avoid lump sum, he said.

Pichay said he believes the senators will accept their explanation and Senate President Tito Sotto will finally affix his signature on the General Appropriations Act before it is transmitted to President Rodrigo Duterte for the final signing.

He said the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee has no legal personality and the POC should be ready in case the Philippine Sports Commission will not disburse fund to finance its projects.

By then, all government projects lined up this year — including the midterm elections and the SEA Games — will be funded.

“I’m a hundred percent sure that we won’t be operating on a reenacted budget,” said Pichay, dismissing fears that the deadlock among senators and congressmen would hamper the country’s hosting of the prestigious biennial meet.

“I’m very positive that the senators would act on it and eventually endorse it to the President for final approval. I think the President will sign it in a day or two.”

Also the chess federation president and member of the powerful executive council of the Philippine Olympic Committee, Pichay revealed that he recently sat down with POC president Ricky Vargas to brief him about the country’s SEA Games preparation.

He said the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee has no legal personality and the POC should be ready in case the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will not finance its projects.

I’m very positive that the senators would act on it and eventually endorse it to the President for final approval.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri was supposed to serve as chief organizer after he was initially tapped by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

But after the Marawi terror siege in 2017 the PSC, with the blessing of President Duterte, declared that the country will not push through with the hosting. Government, they said, was to put its resources on the rehabilitation of the embattled city.

But a few months later, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano volunteered to revive the hosting. He even flew to Kuala Lumpur during the 29th SEA Games to receive the SEA Games flag as a sign of willingness to spearhead the big task.

Cayetano’s group buckled down to work and was given a memorandum circular by Medialdea, instructing the PSC and other government agencies to provide support to Phisgoc for the success of the hosting.

The Commission on Audit, however, reached out to the PSC, asking for a memorandum of agreement or a board resolution coming from the POC executive council to determine Phisgoc’s legal personality.

Pichay said there is none.

“I told Mr. Vargas that he should be prepared because Phisgoc has no legal personality as far as the POC is concerned. There’s no board resolution or MoA issued by the POC appointing it to organize the SEA Games,” said Pichay.