Drug control NSAs’ job

From now on, the different national sports associations should take it upon themselves in ensuring that their athletes are free from any substance that may be deemed illegal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

Philippine Olympic Committee vice president and RP weightlifting association head Monico Puentevella said the NSAs should not rely solely on the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine which is working on a tight budget.

Puentevella, a congressman from Bacolod, also said sports officials should not resort to finger-pointing and instead look for ways to ensure that what happened to taekwondo’s Esther Marie Singson does not happen again.

Singson stands to lose the gold she won in the bantamweight division after her urine samples that were brought to a WADA-accredited medical facility in Beijing following her victory tested positive for diuretics.

Diuretics is not a performance-enhancing drug but is among the 200 sustances banned by WADA because it’s being used as a masking agent for other banned substances, particularly steroids.

Singson said she did not intent to cheat, saying it was the slimming tea, which she started taking last Otober, or one month before the SEA Games, that contained diuretics.

"It’s too late for finger-pointing because the coaches and team managers as well should guide their athletes and not only leave it to the PCSM," said Puentevella.

The PCSM, under Dr. Raul Canlas, has no capability to monitor the close to a thousand national athletes because of budgetary constraints.

Canlas said a single test to determine if an athlete is safe from any prohibited substance or otherwise costs from $150 to $400. All the PCSM could check is whether an athlete is into drugs, such as marijuana or shabu. This test only costs P100.

"If we had all the money in the world that would be no problem but since we have limited budget we have no choice. It’s a team effort for all of us to watch over all our athletes, especially the NSAs," added Puentevella.

"Let’s not blame the PCSM alone because they really have a limited budget. All athletes must be guided as to what drugs are allowable or not. Most of our athletes don’t even know what’s prohibited.

"This could happen to my NSA just as well because we lack the basic education on prohibited drugs, too. Let’s not blame the athletes," he said.

Singson stands to lose the gold that she won over an Indonesian athlete. But nothing is official yet since it will be the SEA Games Federation Council that has the right to decide on it.

The council will meet later this month in Malaysia where Filipino sports officials are expected to attend.