Various problems continue to hound the country’s hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games with barely two days before it goes full blast at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a reliable Daily Tribune source said chiefs of mission raised the same old problems during their emergency meeting Thursday morning at the Midas Hotel in Pasay City.

In particular, the heads of delegation were not happy over how the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) is attending to their concerns regarding accommodation, traffic, transportation, food and water in the first few days of the prestigious biennial meet.

One of the blunders that Phisgoc committed was its failure to process the visa of two foreign coaches of Indonesia, prompting them to be barred from boarding their flight to Manila.

All countries were represented with no less than Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William “Butch” Ramirez gracing the meeting for Team Philippines.

Phisgoc international relations director Porfirio Mayo attended the meeting on behalf of chairman Alan Peter

CayetanoandchiefoperatingofficerRamon“Tats”Suzara. The early stretch of Phisgoc’s hosting of the Games

has been chaotic.

Football players from Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar

and Timor-Leste fired the first shot as they were given shabby treatment by organizers, who failed to pick them up from the airport on time.

With that, the Cambodians had to sleep on the carpet of their hotel while waiting to be accommodated while the Thais missed their first training and were left breaking sweat in the streets due to late check-in.

The Thai booters, who are regarded as the cream of the crop in their football-crazy country, also complained about the limited supply of water and non-availability of Thai food. With that, Thailand football federation chief Somyot Poompanmoung provided the players with Thai food until the end of the competition.

Even the home squad was not spared.

Membersofthenationalwomen’sfootballteamhad to wait for four hours before being given access to their rooms. The following day, they were served with egg, rice and kikiam, a street food that has no nutritional value.

The hotel, however, clarified that what it served wasn’t kikiam, but chicken sausage that was part of their breakfast menu.

The source said chiefs of mission took the meeting as an opportunity to air their grievances.

“It is already the second chiefs of mission meeting and all of them were still saying the same problem,” said the source, adding that everybody was there except for Brunei chief of mission Haji Muhd Zamri who came in late because he was booked in a different hotel.

Actually, Brunei, the mineral-rich country that was supposed to host the Games but backed out due to lack of facilities, also had some serious concerns after its prince in Faiq Jefri Bolkiah suffered allergy attack due to nuts.

“Phisgoc has yet to address problems in accommodation, transportation, food, water, traffic and the distance from hotel to training and competition venues. Heads of delegation were all raising these concerns and no assurance was given if these would be resolved.”

Ramirez confirmed the veracity of the source’s claim, but refused from issuing further comment.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo stressed that President Rodrigo Duterte is closely monitoring the situation.

Heads of delegation were all raising these concerns and no assurance was given if these would be resolved.

In fact, he is set to conduct an inquiry on the organization of the event as well as a separate probe on the irregularities in the administration of the country’s SEA Games hosting.

Panelo said the probe would be launched right after the Games, but called on Phisgoc to tie the loose ends in its hosting to avoid further complaints, especially from Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Timor-Leste, Singapore and Brunei.

“An array of criticisms has been made on how Phisgoc handled the logistics of this momentous event, and these should be accepted and considered in order to rectify the errors it has committed,” Panelo said in a statement.