Donors shy away due to politics

Politics in sports remains the biggest thorn in the government’s continuing bid to lure the private sector into pouring in a bigger and more sustained financial support to the national sports program.

Philippine Sports Commission chairman Carlos D. Tuason aired this strong observation during yesterday’s PSA sports forum at the Holiday Inn where he talked about the country’s preparations for the Kuala Lumpur Southeast Asian Games in September.

RP’s neighboring countries, particularly Vietnam and Indonesia, have been enjoying big financial support from the government and the private sector while the Philippines has been hard-pressed to augment its P30 million budget for the KL games, Tuason added.

Vietnam, despite a marked improvement when it comes to sports development, is reportedly spending so much more in its bid to overtake the Philippines in regional supremacy in sports based on their showings in the 1999 Brunei SEA Games.

"The Philippines finished fifth with 20 golds in Brunei behind Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore with the Vietnamese coming in sixth with 19 golds. Talagang mabigat ang Vietnam pero kailangan din natin tingnan ang Indonesia," said Tuason.

The PSC chief, who was joined in the forum by commissioner Amparo Lim and Ramon Suzara of the SEA Games Task Force, said the recent financial crisis and social unrest in Indonesia might not even affect its chances because of a tremendous support from the private sector.

"The Indonesian team is now being supported by a private bank to the tune of $21 million and that only shows you that its private sector, despite all the problems, had gone out of the way just to help. Sana ganyan din dito sa atin ... hindi puro gobyerno," he said.

The problem with the local private sector, according to Tuason, is that there is too much politics in sport. "In my talks with the members of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, their problem is politics in sports. Ayaw nila tuloy ilagay ang pangalan nila sa gulo.

"Another problem that our private sector is encountering is the fact that there are no clear guidelines on the incentives they can get by helping our sports program. What benefits can we assure them aside from media exposure? May tax benefit ba silang makukuha? That’s or problem here," Tuason continued.

"But the only thing we can do is to minimize them because even IOC (International Olympic Committee) president Juan Antonio Samaranch, in his recent visit to the country, said it’s impossible to take politics out of sports for as long as government funds are used to fund it."

Against this backdrop, Tuason yesterday issued an appeal to all sports officials and national athletes to (even temporarily) take politics out of sports while we prepare for the SEA Games.

"Tama na muna iyan and let’s concentrate on the SEA Games," he said.