Bilang suporta sa mga aspiring na atletang Pinoy, magpapatayo si TV5 Chairman Manny V. Pangilinan ng Center for Sports Excellence sa First Pacific Leadership Academy sa Antipolo City.
“We need a Center for Sports Excellence in this country and we’re thinking, actually we’ve already drawn up plans converting the First Pacific Leadership Academy – it’s about a 15-hectare property in Antipolo – into a sports center,” ani Pangilinan sa ‘The Chiefs’ ng One News.
“It already has the hotel facilities there, rooms, and then space to build badminton courts, boxing gyms, basketball courts. And we’ll have sports psychologists, trainers, coaches living there as well, so it will be effectively a National Sports Center,” dagdag niya.
Ang First Pacific sports hub ay naglalayong magbigay ng dedikadong pag-aaral at lugar na mapag-sasanayan ng mga atleta upang hindi na lumipad sa ibang bansa.
Ayon naman kay MVPSF board of trustee at boxing association president na si Ricky Vargas, malaki ang maitutulong ng bagong sports center sa pag-unlad ng mga atleta.
“Ang problema natin, wala tayong Centers of Excellence, that’s why you have to send them out to other countries, where they can really focus, learn, get not only mental strength (but) toughness,” saad ni Vargas.
“We don’t have that here and there are many Filipinos who are professionals in nutrition, sports psychologists, kinetics and all that. If we can get that to his (Pangilinan’s) vision in the First Pacific Leadership Academy, that’s a start,” dagdag niya.