The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) leadership can’t help but express its gratitude and thanks to various groups, including the government sector in making it possible for the Philippine flag to be raised in major events like the Olympic Games.

PSC chairman Richard Bachmann said it was a collective effort from the government to make sure the Philippine delegation will be able to waive its flag at the biggest multi-sport conclave in the world.

“I would also like to thank Phinado (Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization) and also WADA itself who actually helped PSC and Phinado fix all these issues they had,” Bachmann said.

“That was actually one of the major issues I have that I was a bit nervous of not having your flag shown in the Olympics, but we were able to do it. I want to thank everyone who helped out, especially the legislators and DBM (Department of Department of Budget and Management) and President Bongbong Marcos, who we actually met in Malacañang.”

The PSC and Phinado worked hand-in-hand with WADA until the Philippines was removed from the non-compliance list last March, giving the athletes a sigh of relief as they continued to train for the Paris Summer Games.

It turned out to be a great effort in the end as Carlos Yulo of gymnastics won two gold medals after winning in the men’s floor exercise and vault.

Meanwhile, boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas took bronze medals in the women’s 58-kilogram and 50-kg divisions, respectively, to make it a total of four medals.

Bachmann now wants to increase the personnel in the PSC for 2025.

“One thing I also want, one of my wish lists that I could get done next year is to plan positions in PSC, the employees,” Bachmann said.

“Again, we have a lot of CoS (Contract of Service), we have a lot of plantilla positions, and my PSC employees deserve to have a plantilla position. So I’m asking DBM to allow PSC to increase its plantilla positions to almost 250 to 300 so that our CoS who are doing plantilla work become regular employees.”