MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday, 16 October 2019, urged his co-lawmakers to shift their focus in developing other sports disciplines after national gymnast Carlos Yulo and lady boxer Nesthy Petecio won historic golds apiece in the world stage recently.

Yulo and Petecio respectively snared top honors in the world stage that earned the gymnast a ticket for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Last week, Yulo staked himself as the very first Filipino to win a gold medal in the world artistic gymnastics competitions in Germany even as Petecio pulled off a similar feat in the 2019 AIBA Women’s Boxing World Championships in Russia.

Sen. Pacquiao also said the government should pour in more funds to sports disciplines where Filipinos can excel like weight-classed sports and use taxpayers’ money to modernize sports facilities in cities and town nationwide.

“We should pour more support on weight-classed sports and other sports that does not give undue advantage to bigger and taller athletes,” Pacquiao told national media.

“Just like many Filipinos, I love basketball and there is nothing wrong with it. But as far as the government’s sports development policy is concerned, we should refocus our resources and energy on other sports because there is no way that we could beat bigger and faster players in world basketball,” Pacquiao said.

He added that national sports associations should stop sending large delegation of national athletes who end up acting like “excursionists” in international tournaments,” Pacquiao added.

“We should only field athletes with high potential of winning a medal,” he said. (Lloyd Tagbago, IAmigo/CNS)