DOH won’t interfere with PSC policies

The Philippine Sports Commission and the Department of Health yesterday buried all the apprehensions regarding the implementation of Executive Order 441 "delegating to the Secretary of Health the power to exercise oversight functions over the PSC."

The executive order was signed by President Arroyo in July last year but was not immediately implemented because of the country’s hosting of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games. Now it has to be implemented.

A draft prepared by the DOH, however, caused some apprehensions when it mentioned as one of its functions the "review of existing policies, rules and regulations pertaining to the implementation functions of the PSC."

The PSC, under chairman Butch Ramirez, took it as a sign of "DOH intrusion" into its rules and policies in its 16-year existence. Ramirez even offered to resign if the DOH gets to exercise control over the PSC.

Yesterday, PSC commissioner Ambrosio de Luna and legal officer Maribel Rodriguez met with Health Secretary Francisco Duque and his undersecretary Alex Padilla. The meeting was held at the DOH headquarters in Manila.

The air was cleared when the DOH officials clarified the contents of its draft, in that its oversight functions are only limited to the "health and nutrition" of the close to 1,000 national athletes under PSC supervision.

It was stressed that the DOH did not intend to intrude into the PSC’s policy-making. The meeting turned out to be a very fruitful one in that the DOH and the PSC have promised to work hand in hand.

"It was a very nice gesture by the DOH. And with it, the executive order will prove to be more of pluses than minuses," said Ramirez.

"The DOH officials told us not to worry about the policies. There was just some misinterpretation of the draft. Now it’s been resolved. And we all welcomed it," said the PSC chief.

"No more problems. The DOH and the PSC will now work in collaboration regarding the health and nutrition of all our athletes," said de Luna, adding that the PSC will only have to report to the DOH from time to time regarding the health of the athletes.