KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — The Asean Para Sports Federation (APSF) will hold a Board of Governors (BoG) emergency meeting soon to ratify the cancellation of the 2020 Asean Para Games in the Philippines.

APSF president Major General Osoth Bhavilai said it received an official notification on the cancellation of the biennial Games, which was to be staged in Manila, from the Philippines Paralympic Committee (NPC Philippines) on May 6.

He said in a statement today that APSF would hold an emergency board meeting to deliberate, ratify and endorse the cancellation of the 10th Asean Para Games and move on towards the staging of the 11th edition, which is scheduled to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam next year.

The Philippines was supposed to host the Para Games in January after the SEA Games last December. However, it was delayed to the end of March, and then to May or June, before the decision to call it off was made due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The Philippines Sports Commission (PSC) had reportedly withdrawn financial support for the event to focus on measures to cope with the pandemic, partly resulting in the cancellation of the Asean Para Games. — Bernama