SEAG: Pinoys have shown their 'can do' spirit!

That the Philippine Sporting Team won 113 Gold medals, 76 Silver medals and 85 Bronze medals during the 23rd Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) is a historic feat that Philippine Sports have never tasted so sweet a victory, and indeed they have all the right to pop up a lot of champagne bottles and drink to be merry and, nope, I didn't say gay!

Sure, all those medals were won despite negative stories like the one blurted out by our beloved eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal during the formal opening of the SEAG, wherein he said that the money spent for that celebration should have been better spent for the poor. This just makes me wonder what the Cardinal would again say when he learns that a huge sum of money was spent for the victory party to celebrate this historic win?

The other negative story was the accusation by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that we cheated during the games. Alas for the Thai Prime Minister, his accusation must have been whispered into his ear by someone from the Thai sporting team who was still smarting for losing their games and the only excuse they could find for their humiliating loss was to accuse the winner of cheating.

Of course, PM Shinawatra responded like a true blue politician who just lost his election bid by accusing us of cheating without giving any evidences to prove their accusations. This just goes to show that politicians have a similar DNA; it doesn't matter if they are Thais or Filipinos, they react much in the same way as politicians are expected to react, like sore losers!

When the Thai PM accused the Philippines of cheating, he was in effect insulting all the referees and judges of the SEAG for having been "bought or bribed" by the Philippines, something so utterly ridiculous. But as the old saying goes, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" and since no one has come forward to present any proof that we cheated. We can say that we did win the SEAG as true sportsmen and women, fairly and squarely.

At last, our SEAG sporting teams have proven themselves to be excellent in the sports field, for as long as the whole nation cheers them and gives them all the support they need to win all those gold medals. Perhaps the major reason why our sports team won so many medals during the SEAG is due to the fact that all the money needed to support our athletes were spent on their respective sports, and none for sending a delegation of "kibitzers or alalays" to the games because all of it was held here at home, not abroad!

The best reason for all Filipinos to celebrate our humongous win for the 23rd SEAG is that, it is the first time ever that Filipinos excelled in their own homeland. For too long, we've been considered losers even in our own backyard, which is why we are having a "Diaspora" because we cannot win in the race of life in our own land. All this is due to the reality that too much politics have robbed us of a chance to have a better system government that can improve the Filipino's status not just here at home, but abroad. I guess that is the next hurdle we have to make.

Let's take the cue from the front page story of the Philippine Star yesterday which blared, "Beyond medals, SEAG is all about ASEAN cooperation." I can't agree more with this statement; after all, we saw so much cooperation not just with our ASEAN friends, but also right here at home. For instance when Thai PM Shinawatra threw those accusations at the Filipino athletes, even our warring politicians who cannot see eye-to-eye in any issue came up in unison demanding an explanation or an apology from the Thai PM. Read all the newspapers today and every Tom, Dick and columnist or commentator are writing praises to the victory of the Filipinos. How I wish we'd all unite to create a better nation, then the whole world would know that the Filipino has the "can do" spirit.

The year 2005 was wracked by political turmoil, thanks to the "Hello Garci" brouhaha, business setbacks, especially with the coming implementation of the e-Vat and international terrorism. But our winning the 23rd SEAG seems to have wiped out all those negatives, where we would have ended the year (we've got only 25 days to go till the year 2006 comes) as big time losers. But instead, despite all the doomsayer's warnings, the peso to the dollar has reversed its course and now the whole nation is in a state of euphoria for winning the 23rd SEAG.

In the meantime, let us bask in the limelight of our winning the SEAG and hope that it won't be the last and it would be a new beginning for the Philippines to emerge as leaders not just in sports, but as proud members of the community of nations in ASEAN and the rest of the world.

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