Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William I. Ramirez and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Prospero De Vera III formally signed the Memorandum of Agreement on the development of Tertiary School Sports on Wednesday at the CHED Auditorium, Diliman, Quezon City.
“I am so happy for this newly forged partnership with CHED. They have been a brother to the PSC because as a small agency, we cannot be effective and succeed without the help of other agencies,” said Ramirez in his opening remarks.
Ramirez also expressed that he believes the partnership would create more competitive and excellent coaches and athletes in the collegiate level. “This gives us the missing link in providing a professional development in continuous sports education and will cater more to the educational aspect of our teachers in coaching.”
“We welcome this memorandum of agreement as it will allow us to join forces with the PSC in joint projects that we can initiate. We commit the support of CHED in all the undertakings on higher education sports development and wellness,” said De Vera.
Among the objectives of the MOA, is to maximize the engagement and collaboration of both parties in the formulation of a unified tertiary school sports development program to ensure that the HEI’s Sports Development Plans are aligned with the national agenda and of the highest international standards.
PSC and CHED also commit to working hand in hand in providing training for student-athletes, coaches, and sports officials on Higher Education through Professional Development and continuing education to ensure that the highest coaching and training skills will be provided to tertiary athletes as the country strives to produce elite athletes for world-class performances.
The on-going National Sports Coaching Certification Course will now fall under this partnership, effectively institutionalizing this continuing education initiative of the PSC.
The partnership will also be discussed along with the many plans for collaborative work of the agency in the National Sports Summit 2021.
Alongside the sports agency chief was PSC Commissioner Celia Kiram, and Chief of Staff and PSI National Training Director Marc Velasco.
For the CHED side, De Vera was joined by CHED Office of the Executive Director OIC Atty. Ryan Estevez and Office of the Deputy Executive Director OIC Atty. Lily Milla.
Despite the partnership between CHED and PSC, the return of college sports still has no timeline, according to Velasco.
This despite “semi-pro” leagues being allowed by Department of Health to resume already.
The Joint Administrative Order still bars student-athletes, varsity teams, and collegiate leagues to train and compete.
“The JAO was created to give guidelines for the resumption of sports. I think that for college sports, we will be working with CHED when they start the face-to-face. With the DOH circular, that’s their initiative to provide guidelines for the restart of leagues not covered by the PSC and GAB,” said Velasco.
“To be honest, we cannot set timelines yet because COVID is very fluid. It depends on the situation. For the JAO, we just provide the guidelines.”
