SMART Sports to support Leyte Sports Academy

By Provincial Media Relations Center
October 21, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  SMART Sports marketing and special projects head Patrick Gregorio promised support to the Leyte Sports Academy – a sports scholarship program run by the provincial government of Leyte.

A visit to the Leyte Sports Academy situated inside the Leyte Sports Development Center, more popularly known as Grandstand, the Smart Sports head said he is much impressed at how well-maintained the facilities are and how comprehensive the program is for the youths of the province.

Gregorio visited the Leyte Sports Academy on Tuesday, in response to a call made by Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) Executive Director Ed Pecson, a native of Leyte, who solicited support from various sports sponsors to back this provincial sports program.

Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla personally toured the Smart Sports team around the Leyte Sports Academy including the adjacent Leyte Sports Development Center with its Olympic-sized swimming pool, track and field areas, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts and its world-standard football field.

“It is very good to see that the province has maintained the facility after it hosted the Palarong Pambansa in 2009. Other provinces which have hosted the same have not maintained the venue turning instead into ghost areas,” Gregorio said.

Former Board Member Rowil Batan, who stand as the academy’s director, made a presentation to the Smart Sports team, where it was learned that running the program and maintaining the facilities cuts a budget of at least P6 million annually with a total of 70 athlete-scholars under their wing for this year 2011.

The operating cost is set to run to at least P8 million in 2012 as the province targets a total of 100 scholars next year.

Gregorio was likewise impressed that the athletes have shown good records in provincial, regional and national athletics meet only a few months after the program formally opened in October 2010 proving that the young athletes have indeed potentials in their respective sports.

The Leyte Sports Academy trains athletes in boxing, badminton, track and field and swimming.

Smart and parent company Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) led by its Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan have been supporting basketball, boxing, cycling, taekwondo, and tennis via Smart Sports.

For Smart Sports, according to Gregorio, helping sports has become its passion, not just by measuring what they can get through media mileage or something they can get from what the group has invested.