CLARK FREEPORT – The proposal of Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go to establish the National Academy of Sports in New Clark City (NCC) gets much-needed boost from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
In a statement on Wednesday, the BCDA lauded the initiative of Go in supporting sports development hoping that the move will inspire the next generation of elite athletes.
“We laud the initiative of Senator Bong Go to push sports development in the country further,” BCDA president and CEO Vince Dizon said.
He added that NCC is the perfect venue for the National Academy of Sports, being the home of a world-class sports complex.
Phase 1A of New Clark City, a smart and green metropolis rising within the Clark Special Economic Zone, includes the construction of sports facilities to be used for the Philippines’ hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games later this year.
BCDA said a new 20,000-seater Athletics Stadium and 2,000-seater Aquatics Center are already more than 90 percent finished, way ahead of the biennial games.
BCDA and its partner, infrastructure developer MTD Clark, Inc., are scheduled to start the testing of facilities as early as September.
Athletes will be housed in the Athletes’ Village, and will have access to modern training facilities, it added.
NCC is one of the flagship projects under the Duterte administration’s Build Build Build infrastructure program.
Go, chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports, said putting up the National Academy of Sports for high school in the NCC will “maximize the use of the facilities and enable our student-athletes to hone their skills as we give them proper exposure to world class sports facilities and possibly to join the National Athletes Pool in various events.”
In November last year, Go joined more than a hundred national athletes in inspecting the NCC sports facilities. The then-special assistant to the President, Go said the new facility is the administration’s gift to the nation’s hardworking athletes.
NCC Phase 1A is set to be inaugurated by President Duterte in November.
