The disaster in the country’s hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian Games will cost a lot of jobs.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo yesterday assured that a full-blown investigation is under way as President Rodrigo Duterte is not happy over the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee’s (Phisgoc) handling of the country’s hosting of the biennial meet.

Panelo said the Chief Executive, in particular, was mad over Phisgoc’s shabby treatment of foreign delegates, especially football players from Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Timor-Leste. Football is one of the first few sports to be played in the 11-nation conclave. But shortly after their arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, they suffered a lot of setbacks as they had to wait for four to five hours before

the football players brought to their hotels.

Worse, the Cambodians were seen sleeping on the carpet while the Thais had to cancel their training due to the delays they encountered

at the hotel. They also ranted about food rations, prompting

Thai football association president Somyot Poompanmoung to provide more Thai food to athletes, coaches and team staff until the end of competition.

The national women’s football team was also not spared.

Aside from suffering delays in securing a room, head coach Let Dimzon revealed that they were served with rice, egg and kikiam, a popular street food that has no nutritional value, during their first breakfast.

Her revelation sparked uproar and was picked up by local and international news outlets that reflected the sorry state of Phisgoc’s preparation.

Panelo said Duterte would not be taking all of these sitting down.

“Let’s put it this way: The President is not pleased of what he’s been hearing about certain snafu, certain delays, certain allegations of athletes not being fed properly, athletes arriving late or not on time delivered to their places of rest or residence,” Panelo said in an interview in Busan, South Korea.

“He doesn’t want that. There were allegations of corruption that came out of the papers and he doesn’t want that. He wants to investigate that. He won’t tolerate corruption.”

Phisgoc chief operating officer Ramon Suzara stressed that all the negative issues that cropped up were products of media attack.

He said they already sat down with the heads of delegation of various countries and agreed to sort things out.

When you investigate a particular body, everybody must be included.

“Two days ago, we had a chef de mission meeting where we tackled all complaints, issues and requests of competing countries. We have already resolved everything,” said Suzara, who was accompanied by Philippine Olympic Committee president Abraham Tolentino in an emergency news conference at the World Trade

Center.

“That’s why I’m appealing to all

of you and your colleagues to make stories that are positive for the athletes. Let’s help

them win.” “Let’s help each other and I’m hoping for a positive feedback from you,

media.”

In a previous statement to Daily

Tribune, President Duterte stressed that he will not tolerate corruption.

In fact, he wanted a purely private body like Phisgoc out of the picture and just hand the hosting to a government agency like the Philippine Sports Commission

(PSC).

PSC chairman William “Butch”

Ramirez maintained that they, with the support of the Philippine Olympic Committee and the national sports associations, can host the biennial meet

at a budget that is way lower than the P6.5 billion that the government doled out.