POC-PSC row alarms SEAG athletics hero

MANILA, Philippines - The current feud between top officials of the Philippine Olympic Committee and Philippine Sports Commission isn’t doing the national athletes any good as they prepare for 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos in December.

“It’s quite disturbing,” Arnel Ferreira, SEA Games gold medalist in men’s hammer throw in 2003, 2005 and 2007, said as he prepared for his daily, three-hour morning workout at the sun-baked Rizal Memorial track stadium.

“I’m used to these things,” he said of the protracted and highly publicized rift between the two sports bodies that are supposed to work hand in hand, and see to it that the Filipino athletes are guided toward the right direction.

“But this is different,”said Ferreira, adding that with barely seven weeks to the biennial games set Dec. 9 to 18, sports officials have yet to agree on the final number of athletes who will represent the country in the 11-nation meet.

“By this time the athletes should know if they’re going or not. But it’s really not for us to interfere,” said the wide-bodied hammer thrower.

As a gold medalist in the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand, Ferreira is among the 153 athletes who were guaranteed slots and funding by the PSC, under chairman Harry Angping, to Laos. But he said he’s more worried for the others.

“We don’t have any problem because we’re in. But how about those who did not win the gold or the silver in the last SEA Games, but are more promising now?” said Ferreira.

Angping said the PSC could only fund 153 athletes to Laos because these are the only ones with strong chances of winning the gold. They are made up of the 2007 gold and silver medals and the younger, promising ones.

POC head Peping Cojuangco wants a bigger delegation because he feels there are 213 athletes who are capable of winning medals in Laos. The POC said it can fund those who will not be funded by the PSC.

“The SEA Games is just around the corner and yet we don’t know who’s going,” said Ferreira, speaking from the heart, speaking as the president of the Athletes and Coaches Association of the Philippines or ACAP.