Philippines cancels 2020 ASEAN Para Games

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The Philippines Paralympic Committee (PPC) has announced the cancelling of this year’s ASEAN Para Games in the Philippines due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a statement from the the PPC, the Philippines will not hold any large sporting events this year until the coronavirus situation has improved.

“This is bad news for our ASEAN para-athletes who have trained so much to represent their countries, but our priority is their safety and health. The problems caused by the outbreak are global and cannot be ignored. This has forced us to take this very difficult decision”, PPC President Michael Barredo said in the statement.

“Following the decision of the Philippines, the 10th ASEAN Para Games is officially cancelled, but we would like to thank the Philippines` for its efforts in the preparations for the ASEAN Para Games.

“The ASEAN Paralympic Sport Federation will hold a board meeting to discuss the cancellation and other measures to be taken,” said APSF President Osoth Bhavilai.

The games were initially set to be held in January 2020 but it was rescheduled to March due to financial and logistical constraints. Then the event was postponed again for a second time to October 3-9 due to concerns over the COVID-19 Pandemic.

On May 8, the game was formally cancelled after the Philippines government reallocated funds meant for the games to efforts to alleviate the impacts of the pandemic in the Philippines.

The ASEAN Para Games, which would officially have been known as the 10th ASEAN Para Games this year, is a biannual multi-sport event for the para-athletes intended to be held after the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines.

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