Q: May call na magkaroon ng parang autonomous body ang e-sports in the Philippines. Are you aware of that and how willing will you be to work with them?

 

Sen. Bam: I think it would be great na magkaroon ng association for e-sports. Earlier, we talked about possibly talking to the Philippine Sports Commission to see kung may mga paraan para ma-recognize officially sila ng gobyerno.

 

Private body would be even better and we are willing to support naman.

 

We’ve talked to the players. We’ve been supporting them for the last couple of trips nila. We’re hoping na di na maulit iyong pag-o-offload.

 

Sabi nga namin, lahat ng paperwork na kailangan, lahat ng permiso, siguraduhin na natin early on para wala na silang obstacles to get to their tournaments and training programs.

 

Q: Mas maganda mag-training sa Korea because they have better Internet. Have you also looked into that problem here na medyo sub-par ang Internet?

 

Sen. Bam: We have one of the worst Internet in the ASEAN. Actually, that’s one of our main advocacies, to improve the Internet infrastructure here in the Philippines.

 

So hopefully, if we’re able to improve [our Internet here in the country], we will develop our e-sports industry even more and we will be able to support more of our cyber athletes.

Q: Have other government employees and offices expressed interest in helping e-sports?

 

Sen. Bam: Feeling ko wala, to be frank. Nauna na kami dahil we’ve been dealing with the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP).

 

We’ve been helping them try to get more leads and bring more companies to the Philippines kasi naniniwala kami na there’s a lot of talent and a lot of competency in the Philippines.

 

Doon nagsimula iyon. We’ve been helping them bring in companies like Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft. We’ve been talking to these guys to set up studios here. Hopefully, may good news iyan in a couple of months.

 

Through that effort, nakilala namin ang e-sports players. That’s when they came to us and asked for help kay Team Rave. We’ve been trying to help them with their paperwork and mga permits and regulations nila.

 

Unfortunately, di sila nakipag-coordinate for their last trip to Korea. But now, we’re helping them and hopefully, maayos na iyon.

 

In fact, we organized a meeting with them and the POEA para lahat ng paperwork nga nila maayos na. Sabi nga namin, we will do our best to make sure that they travel safely to Korea, eventually to the States and be able to compete there

 

We’re proud of this team dahil they’re No. 1 in Southeast Asia, they’re the underdogs, they beat huge teams from really huge countries.

 

Kita ninyo naman, hindi pa kasi kasinlakas ang e-sports sa ating bansa compared to those countries and they’re already able to place.

 

We’re hoping that with more support from Pinoys and from different institutions that they can really bring home the gold and take the largest prize money.

 

We’re quite proud of them and we hope na they have more continued success as they continue their journey.