Yes, MVP, there’s sports development plan

I read with interest the report of my colleague, Quinito Henson in his column in this paper, Sporting Chance, about a meeting The STAR sports staff had with PLDT and Smart Communications chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP) sometime last week.

Quinito reported that MVP batted for a long term sports development plan since the sports community cannot treat sports on an "ad hoc basis, knocking on doors when the need arises" or words to that effect. I am told that MVP even asked "who will prepare that plan."

The good news I am happy to report to MVP and Co is, there is indeed an existing integrated sports master or development plan that only needs to be updated. The plan, prepared during my 39-month stint from March 1995 to June 1998 as chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) during the administration of then President Fidel V. Ramos, is an eight-volume document and road map for the years 1996-2000. One of the basic reasons for the plan was precisely to end the ad hoc culture that seemed ingrained in the sports community.

I passed on the plan, officially referred to as the "Philippine Sports Commission Sector Plan for Philippine Sports: 1996-2000," to each of the three PSC chairpersons that succeeded me and offered to help update the plan.

The bad news I am sad to report to MVP and Co (and for the nth time to the public in my columns then in the now defunct broadsheet TODAY and in various forums since 1998), is no one took substantive steps to update said plan.

The plan was completed in conjunction with the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) after countless hours of nationwide consultations over several months. The Australian Sports Commission, the Australian Institute of Sport and Price Waterhouse Urwick Management Consultants worked with PSC to produce the plan that was then to be approved by the Ramos Cabinet. That approval was never obtained because of a change in administration.

The NEDA, the highest planning body in government, fully realizing that such a plan was long overdue and the pivotal role the plan would play in exploring non-traditional sources of funds for sports thus making up for the chronic shortfalls, invited the leadership of the PSC to update the plan. Regular line departments update plans with NEDA as a matter of standard practice. There is nothing magical about it. 

Unfortunately again, the invitations remained largely unanswered. Was it because the people concerned had other priorities? 

Perhaps there is no real need to answer that question and others that may arise despite heightened sensitivity nowadays to accountability in good governance. Perhaps we could just inform others of what’s in the plan so that we do not reinvent the wheel especially now that, I am told, the Philippine Olympic Committee is batting for the preparation of a development plan for sports.

The plan had set to attain 44 sports development targets from 1996 (Atlanta Olympics) to 2000 (Sydney Olympics). The plan’s planning cycle would be Olympic-based with the Southeast Asian Games and the Asian Games years in between as the evaluation periods. The plan stressed that meeting these targets will lead to major improvements in Philippine sports by 2000, across the full spectrum from children’s sport to elite international competitions.

Implementation of the major sports development programs and projects under the Sector Plan required about P4 billion up until the year 2000. Of this amount, some P2.5 billion or 61 percent would come from government with, the remainder, or 39 percent, to be sourced from the private sector, largely under the Partnership Program for Sport for All that PSC had put together.

The Plan employed the multi-disciplinary/sector/agency development approach that involved departments and agencies other than just the PSC like Education, Interior and Local Government, the National Sports Associations (NSAs) and the Philsports. The latter was created by President Ramos in November 1996, a few months after the completion of the Sector Plan. This therefore debunks the outrageous claims of some that the Philsports was created only very recently.

That early, Philsports was identified as the "hub" of the national training network and the physical location of the majority of the national athletes and coaches pool. Simultaneous with the creation of Philsports was to be the upgrading of sports science, medicine and information services which were all to be linked nationally. A key element in the plan was upgrading the skills of the then 325,000 MAPE/PEMM (Music and Physical Education) teachers and upgrading the Physical Education (PE) curriculum as part of mass based sports development.

As I see it and as stated in the plan by the then PSC and co-authors of the plan, it is very obvious that the framework for an effective physical education and sports system is essentially in place. 

The framework consists, of among others, the law creating the PSC, the various executive orders (EO) that promote sports at the grassroots, the foremost of which is the EO creating the National Physical Fitness and Sports Development Council or NPFSDC, that goes all the way down to the barangays through the Barangay Physical Fitness and Sports Development Council. Part of that framework too is whatever is left of the PSC strategic plan crafted during my time.

The challenge before us is to ensure that the framework becomes a working framework, rather than just a theoretical one.

When that happens and we reap the benefits of a realistic plan and a truly functioning framework (assuming of course that sports leaders realize that sustainable and equitable development requires rigor and science combined with gut feel), it will become obvious to everyone, including MVP who continues to do more than his share for Philippine sports, indeed there is a sports development plan in place in our country that is a basic ingredient for good governance in the rest of the civilized world.