WHILE their respective athletes vie for medals, the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia will also provide the various national sports associations the chance to prove their worth and justify their future budget requests from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

PSC chairman Richard Bachmann yesterday said that under his watch, the government funding agency in sports will use a different approach in allocating financial assistance to the close to 70 NSAs.

“How do you allocate the budget for all these sports? During 2018 and 2019, we only had 40 NSAs. Right now we have 70 and the budget is basically the same,” said the PSC chief in yesterday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

Bachmann said the PSC will no longer rely solely on historical data (past performances) as it studies and approves the budget requests of the NSAs but has designed a matrix that will help them do the job.

“Under the matrix there will be certain points for certain criteria for Olympic sports and non-Olympic sports. Is the NSA self-sufficient because some of them have sponsors? For individual and team sports there will be certain points,” he said.

“And for medals in the Olympics, Asian Games or SEA Games there will be certain points. Do they have good governance, may grassroots ba?

They earn certain points totalling 100 percent,” Bachmann said during the forum presented by San Miguel Corporation, PSC, MILO, Philippine Olympic Committee, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

He further explained that for NSAs that want bigger financial assistance from the government, they have to deliver the medals especially in the international arena.

“They have to perform. If they perform they get more money from the (overall PSC) budget for next year. We will not base it on historical data,” said Bachmann.

The former PBA player said the PSC is now focused on the Cambodia SEA Games scheduled May 5 to 17.

He said the PSC is leaving no stone unturned that the close to 900 athletes as well as their coaches and trainers will have everything they need as they bid to improve on the country’s fourth-place finish last year in Hanoi.

Bachmann also refused to issue any medal projection.

“I don’t want to project. The PSC is just here trying to take care of the athletes and their allowances and just to support them. If you were fourth last year, maybe you can improve this year. And our athletes have been winning abroad. Hopefully that carries over to Cambodia. That they get the confidence and perform well,” he said.

Bachmann and his four commissioners will be in Cambodia to provide support to the delegation.

“I will be there the whole two weeks to support them. All the commissioners will go. Salitan yata kami. I will be there to help,” said the PSC chief.