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Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Representative Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino disclosed that the postponed Vietnam Southeast Asian Games will happen in May 2022.

Meanwhile, Thailand decided to move the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games’ (AIMAG) to 2023.

“We are expecting both governments of Thailand and Vietnam to make the official announcements next week,” Tolentino said.

Vietnam had been scheduled to host the SEA Games this year, but scrapped that plan citing the pandemic.

The Philippines, which hosted the biennial competition in 2019, is the defending overall champion.

The sixth edition of the AIMAG, held every 4 years, was originally slated for March 10 to 20, 2022 in Bangkok and Chonburi, but the Thai government, Tolentino said, opted to move the competition back because of health and safety considerations.

Tolentino said the Hanoi 31st SEA Games will finally push although no specifics were given.

“I believe it would be in the latter part of May 2022,” Tolentino said.

This means the additional budget amounting to P650 million that the House and Senate agreed to add to the Philippine Sports Commission’s coffers in 2022 would have to be reduced, Tolentino said.

Tolentino previously convinced lawmakers for additional financing from general appropriations to fund Filipino athletes’ preparation and participation in the Beijing Winter Olympics (P5 million), AIMAG (P150 million), The World Games (P10 million), Huangzhou Asian Games (P270 million) and Shantou Asian Youth Games (P15 million).

He also called for an additional P200 million for the SEA Games.