After our sixth-place finish at the 33rd SEA Games and as we gear up for Malaysia in 2027, we once again ask: how can we develop more top athletes for this regional competition?
Everyone talks about developing world-class athletes starting at the grassroots level, but our sports infrastructure is broken.
Congress trifocalized education in the 1990s: DepEd for basic education, CHED for higher education and TESDA for technical and vocational education.
Something important was omitted from the equation: collegiate-level sports development.
The law that established the CHED did not explicitly mention sports. RA 7722 envisioned CHED as a policy-making and regulatory agency, but not as a primary stakeholder in athletic development.
As a result, the CHED never established a dedicated sports office or consistent funding. The system meant to nurture young minds overlooked the importance of training the bodies that carry them.
There was an effort to include this sports mandate in the Amended CHED Charter, but the bill has languished in Congress since 2016.
Not surprisingly, this omission has become more evident over the years.
Congress has passed several laws requiring CHED to play a larger role in sports development. These include RA 10676 and RA 11180, which aim to protect athletes’ rights, gather data on varsity programs and ensure fair treatment of student-athletes. However, CHED has never been legally authorized or financially equipped to organize national collegiate competitions.
The result is a fragmented sports system. Numerous barangay-based athletic competitions introduce young Filipinos to the sports they prefer. The DepEd Palarong Pambansa covers basic education, while the Philippine Sports Commission hosts the Philippine National Games for top-tier and national athletes.
But these competitions are not logically connected from the local to the national level or across regions. There is no institutional pathway guiding student-athletes from elementary school through higher education and into elite competition.
I have seen this broken system hinder my daughter, who was a Palarong Pambansa gold medalist in rhythmic gymnastics. It was already hard enough to cover her coaches’ fees, equipment, travel and accommodations for competitions. Even worse, she had no clear path to continue her athletic training and education from high school through college.
Congress established the National Academy of Sports through RA 1147 to create a pathway for aspiring secondary-level athletes. However, NAS graduates still lack a structured system for a collegiate transition.
The athlete pipeline breaks at the tertiary level because school-based leagues, such as the UAAP, NCAA, SCUAA, PRISAA and LCUAA, determine which sports events to develop, and they lack an inter-league system.
CHED, to its credit, has tried to fill this gap through the Friendship Games, the ROTC Games and other invitational events. These efforts remain sporadic and underfunded. Without a legal mandate, a consistent budget or a policy framework, tertiary sports cannot grow beyond pilot efforts.
Equally troubling is the lack of capacity-building programs for coaches, sports directors and administrators. Many serve out of passion, but few have formal training in sports science, management, sports medicine or athlete welfare.
CHED, in partnership with National University, has created the Tertiary Coaching Education Ladderized Program to professionalize and certify coaches and sports officials. Sports directors from Philippine universities were also sent to the University Kebangsaan Malaysia to receive training in sports tourism and the organization of international sports events.
However, all these initiatives need continuous funding to achieve their impact across all higher education institutions.
Aside from a lack of policy, leadership is also missing. Without visionary leaders in higher education who understand that sports are integral to education, sustainability will remain an elusive goal.
Higher education institutions have experts in research, sports science, psychology, nutrition, physiotherapy and human kinetics – fields that could significantly enhance athlete development in the country. However, these resources remain vastly underused.
It is time for CHED to step up – not just as a regulator but as a committed leader in organized higher education sports governance.
Every university president, dean and athletic director must recognize that sports are not just an accessory to education. They serve as an essential tool for leadership, discipline and overall student development. A strong mind thrives only in a healthy body – and both are crucial for national progress.
The creation of a National Tertiary Games, as proposed by Sen. Bong Go through Senate Bill 678, is a positive step forward. It establishes an institutional link connecting DepEd’s Palaro and serves as a direct pathway to PSC’s Philippine National Games.
We can’t keep celebrating medals at the elite level while ignoring the emptiness underneath.
If we genuinely want to develop athletes who are as intelligent as they are strong and as ethical as they are excellent, then we must establish the missing link: a strong, well-funded and visionary tertiary sports system led by CHED and supported by our higher education institutions.
The future of Philippine sports doesn’t start with the televised SEA Games and Olympic Games – it begins in our classrooms, labs and on campus fields. Unless we take tertiary sports seriously, that future will continue to slip away, one lost athlete at a time.
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Email: deverajp@yahoo.com