Fire Richie Garcia, Peping Cojuanco et al...

“This poor outcome once more calls attention to the sorry state of Philippine sports… Led by Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), is apparently more preoccupied with politics within its ranks than ensuring that only the best Filipino athletes be supported and allowed to represent the Philippines… It is known that many of the best Filipino athletes are not in the POC accredited associations.”

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) failed to meet its 70-gold medals target or at least a third-place finish for the Philippines in the recently concluded 26th Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in Indonesia. Far below PSC Chairman Richie Garcia’s prediction, the Philippines won only 36 golds (7.4 percent of the total gold medals) and finished sixth in the biennial meet.

Philippine performance this year is even worse than our shameful fifth place finish in the 2009 Games held in Laos.

Our country’s performance in the SEAG this year is worst in the last 10 years.

The SEAG is the lowest of the international sports festivals. SEAG involves only the 10 Asean members plus East Timor. One must realize that we have also been performing dismally in the Asian Games and of course in the Olympics.

This poor outcome once more calls attention to the sorry state of Philippine sports. Reforms are long overdue in the way the stewards are managing our sports.

The problems besieging Philippine sports—disunity caused by politics and turf wars, the lack of an effective and pragmatic sports development program and corruption, among others—are so glaring and well known to athletes and the national sports association leaders.

Why are they not doing anything to reform the situation?

Philippine Olympic Committee

Led by Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), the mother organization of all National Sports Associations (NSAs) in the country, is apparently more preoccupied with politics within its ranks than ensuring that only the best Filipino athletes be supported and allowed to represent the Philippines in international competitions. Those in the know say that only sports associations headed and tightly controlled by people loyal to Mr. Cojuangco and will continue to vote for him in every election for POC boss get POC accreditation.

As a result, there are two or more associations in each sport discipline. The POC-accredited one is that which is loyal to Mr. Cojuangco. Because their leaders became critical of Mr. Cojuangco, some associations in the outs were POC-accredited once but lost their accreditation to a newly formed group.

The damaging consequence of this is that excellent athletes belonging to associations led by persons outside Mr. Cojuangco’s sphere of influence end up being veritably non-existent in official POC-sanctioned domestic contests. Only POC-accredited associations receive support from the government’s Philippine Sports Commission. And in all the sports, only the results of events held under the auspices of the POC-accredited PSA are recognized by regional and international sports bodies which have mostly come to be governed by the International Olympic Sports Federations (IFs).

It is known that many of the best Filipino athletes are not in the POC accredited associations. The athletes in many POC-accredited sport associations are less than capable of excelling in regional and international competitions—as proved by the recent SEAG. Our country has therefore been sending many athletes to international meets who would not win against other Filipinos belonging to non-POC-accredited PSAs.

The majority of Filipino sports officials appear to be more focused on acquiring and preserving their influence than on bringing sporting glory to our country. There is a lot of money in being the chief of a sports association. Not only does a PSA get funds from the Philippine Sports Commission, it also can campaign for donations from the private sector—and from the PAGCOR.

Most PSA officials are not doing for the athletes what must be done to make them champions—and they ignore athletes who are better championship material than they ones in their turf.

Sports development

Aside from training our best athletes to become gold medallists in regional and international competitions, the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee have a moral duty to make sports development a vehicle for the improvement of Filipinos as human beings.

Fitness through sports is not being attended to in our country. In most of our fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) this is a rigorously managed concern.

Philippine Sports Commission

In the light of our pitiful performance in the last SEAG, PSC boss Ritchie Garcia should keep his promise that his agency would evaluate the performance of all NSAs. He said that those who did well in the latest SEAG would receive more funding and those that performed poorly would face severe budget cuts and possible termination of support from the PSC.

We also urge the PSC to demand an honest and mandatory accounting of every centavo spent by each NSA on its programs. The PSC disburses taxpayers’ money and funds from government corporations, like PAGCOR. Those funds should benefit the athletes not fatten some sport officials’ pockets.

While sports officials repeatedly insist that there is a sports development program in the country, the Philippines’ performance in the regional and international sports competitions indicate that the program is not working.

The Palarong Pambansa and other national sports competition badly need a shot in the arm. Grassroots programs aiming to discover new talents should be initiated and sustained. And those who emerge as the best should be given support—never mind if their coaches are affiliated with organizations that have been rejected by Mr. Cojuangco’s POC.

Let us not forget, however, that reforming Philippine sports demands collective effort. While corrupt and self-serving officials are largely to blame for our sports woes, the athletes and the media too have their share of the blame in burying Philippine sports in guano. The athletes must remember that they owe their allegiance first and foremost to their country not to any sports official or politician. They must stand for what is right and not be carried away by the frequent shifting of loyalties within the ranks of Philippine sports associations.

The sports media must not be swayed by patronage and bullying by sports officials. They must perform their role as vanguards of the truth.

(MANILA TIMES)