Start preparing for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics now

When will we ever hear the patriotic, inspiring proud announcement spoken and seen in international TV heard worldwide… “Ladies and Gentlemen, please stand up for the Philippine National Anthem”… as the IOC (international Olympic Committee) awards the gold medal to a Filipino athlete, perhaps in the next Olympics?

Wishful thinking, but not, if we start preparing for the Rio Janeiro Olympics scheduled for August 2016…NOW.

First, all the members of the POC (Philippine Olympic Committee) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) must resign their leadership roles… NOW… No matter what the excuses are. The sports leaders should take credit for the success of our sports program, but they should also take the responsibility for the country’s dismal showing in the London Olympics. Such a resignation could be largely symbolical considering those entrenched officials will probably be reelected, reappointed anyway because of the political process of the POC/PSC. Perhaps, we should however make it a long term beneficial policy and practice that the term of national sports leaders should permanently end after every Olympics. In this way, we infuse new blood and new ideas into a sports organization every four years.

A new set of sports leaders hopefully, should be selected by December 2012 with the main objective of winning a gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

What should be the game plan to achieve this national dream?

There were 50 country winners of gold medals in last Olympics. The top three gold medal winners were USA - 46, China - 38 and UK - 29. The following countries won one gold medal each: Canada, Sweden, Colombia, Georgia, Mexico, Ireland, Argentina, Slovenia, Serbia, Tunisia, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Algeria, Bahamas, Grenada, Uganda, and Venezuela

Comparatively, in terms of resources and population, Philippines could very well be one of the gold medal winners. We didn’t win a single medal. Why?

Let us view the objective of winning an Olympic Gold Medal as a patriotic national project. In fact, a PPP (Private/Public Partnership) Project.

I think, if we combine the resources of the government and the private sector effectively and efficiently manage the factors of production required, the Filipino people will achieve the goal of achieving a gold medal in the Olympics, in pursuit of national interest.

What is needed?

Each competitive Olympic sport is currently managed by an NSA (National Sports Association). The NSA should plan a four-year program leading to Sea Games, the Asiad then Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The program should be submitted to the PPP office for review and project implementation.

As a matter of long term policy, the program per sports should now be implemented by a private corporation who has bided or negotiated to undertake the sports project as a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) project to ensure that politics will not be a negative factor in achieving a national objective. There will be stability, continuity and consistency in the administration of the sports program for the next four years, if run by a qualified private company. For example, the basketball “GOLD” program could be assigned to the PLDT group of companies; Considering that the PLDT Group has been sponsoring the national basketball team for sometime now.

The private corporations selected shall fund, select the coaches and train the athletes of their selected sports. All expenses incurred by the private corporation as approved by the PPP office, should be treated as tax credits. As a PPP Project, the government shall match the resources invested by the private sector. Considering that the private sector is using the funds of their Filipino stockholders while the government is using taxes paid by the people then, the PPP for Sports is in reality a project of the Filipino people intended to secure the long awaited sports honors for the country.

We can dream…If we start working now. We can transform that dream into reality.