MANILA, Philippines – Call it personal touch but no less than House Speaker and Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (PHISCOG) Chairman Alan Peter Cayetano visited on Sunday, 24 November 2019, foreign athletes who were left stranded for hours at the airport and were driven to the wrong hotel just days before the competition starts.

The PHISGOC chair said that a lot of the foreign teams participating in the Southeast Asian Games arrived earlier than expected.

“Sa mga foreign teams, talagang we are apologizing for the inconveniences or if I may call it inefficiencies or miscoordination,” said Cayetano in an online media interview.

Cayetano personally apologized to the four international football teams for inconveniences including delayed transport and accommodation, upon the athletes’ arrival for the games.

He added that PHISGOC is now working with the immigration and other offices like the Department of Transportation to cater to all the needs of athletes upon their arrival.

Myanmar and Timor-Leste’s teams complained about their long wait and nasty experience being driven to the wrong hotel, that all but complicated their arrival and training schedules.

Another football team from Thailand also complained about waiting for long hours at the airport and accommodation issues saying the distance of the venue to their hotel prevented them from practicing.

The Cambodian team also complained their hotel rooms were not yet ready when they arrived.

The PHISGOC organizing committee had earlier issued an apology following several issues that greeted the athletes who have begun flying in to Manila ahead of the regional-biennial opening on Saturday, 30^th of November. (Lloyd Tagbago/IAMIGO/CNS)