Three days before the official start of the 30th Southeast Asian Games, the organizing Phisgoc (Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee) is already besieged with criticisms that make the country's fourth hosting as one of the worst in the history of the biennial games.

*Kikiam* and egg for breakfast, poor transport coordination with the foreign squads arriving at the airports, shabby treatment of the delegations — both foreign and local — late accreditation of athletes and members of the media, faulty identification cards, poor billeting facilities, mistreatment of volunteers, and several other complaints have been raised against the organizers just as the competitors and their coaches have set foot in the country.

These do not look like sabotage as Phisgoc Chairman Alan Peter Cayetano had claimed. These concerns could have been remedied quickly had the Phisgoc come into the hosting well prepared.

It seems they were not. The foreign media have raised the issues quickly.

The Phisgoc was rattled by internal concerns even before it took off.

The SEA Games were not supposedly for the Philippines to host. The chore was for Brunei's to take. But in 2015 in Singapore, the Sultanate begged off, citing lack of venues and other possible logistical worries.

Then Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco volunteered the country to take the hosting rights. He was locate sports' most powerful man at the time, uncle to then President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III whose stars were relatively still shining bright and clear.

But Aquino would soon fade, and Cojuangco would lose his clout.

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte smothered Aquino's presidential bet. As President, Duterte made sure sports would be on top of his priorities as a means to combat drug abuse — his pet peeve.

But war broke out in Marawi City, brought about by adventurous terrorists from the local Islamic State.

Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William "Butch" Ramirez asked the President to withdraw from the hosting. Mr. Duterte deemed to use whatever money his administration could save for the rehabilitation of what was once Mindanao's most prosperous city.

Sen. Miguel Zubiri, who was then the Organizing Committee chairman, agreed. Thailand then offered to take over as host country.

But then, Cayetano was appointed as Foreign Affairs secretary after a one-year ban on the candidates who lost in the 2016 elections. He was one of Mr. Duterte's vice presidential partners (the other was Cayetano's Nacionalista party-mate Bongbong Marcos).

Cayetano appealed to revive the SEA Games hosting. He sold the idea of the biennial meet as the DU30 SEA Games. It was not to be. The Games could not be politicized.

Cojuangco was also ousted as POC president. Victorico Vargas of boxing replaced him as Philippine sports' most powerful man. But he never was.

Quickly, Vargas had entered into an agreement with Cayetano to form the Phisgoc even without the approval of the POC Board. When no money was coming into the group being an ad-hoc committee, they formed the Phisgoc Foundation, but with Cayetano no longer part of the Foundation's signatories.

That is when things got messy. Suddenly, there were two Phisgocs acting as SEA Games organizer.

For that, Vargas made his exit after just 17 months as POC Chief. He was replaced by Tagaytay Rep. Bambol Tolentino, who vowed to work with Cayetano, now the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Cayetano, as Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) secretary, batted for a P7.5-billion SEA Games budget. The President reduced it P5 billion.

Then he quit his DFA post to run and win one of two House seats for Taguig, the other was reserved for his wife. He pleaded for an additional billion, which the President gave.

For whatever reason, Mr. Duterte had wanted the SEA Games money out of Phisgoc's hands. It was to pass through the Department of Budget and Management and disbursed by the PSC, under Commission on Audit rules.

With P6 billion to burn, the Phisgoc still complained about being short of P500 million for its broadcast expenses.

You see, the Phisgoc is awash with money. The P6-billion fund is aside from what it had raised from the private sponsors. Yet it still fared poorly in managing the early stages of the Games when all it took for the PSC and the POC was merely P500 million (yes, the same amount of Phisgoc's supposed broadcast expense) to host the 2005 edition and lead the Philippines to the overall SEA Games championship.

There is no guarantee that it could be duplicated this year for what was supposed to be DU30 SEA Games.

Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto agreed with Sen. Franklin Drilon in keeping the Senate open to investigating how the SEA Games went right after the P55-million cauldron is extinguished.

Speaker-in-waiting Lord Allan Velasco also vowed to probe the SEA Games mess soon after. But he echoed the view of Sen. Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go to give the athletes their time to shine first before the axe falls on whomever deserves it.

The only shining moments of the SEA Games hosting is the construction of the world-class facilities at the New Clark City by BCDA Chairman Vivencio Dizon, and the refurbishing of the old yet historic facilities at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex by the PSC.

The hideousness of this mess would be tackled later, soon after the criticisms from the foreign media had died down, and when the time is ripe to knock the heads of these monsters out of the jar.