PSC clarifies stand on national athletes

MANILA, Philippines - In response to Bill Velasco’s column “PSC disbanding all national teams?” published in The Philippine STAR last Nov. 21, Fr. Vic Uy, PSC commissioner and executive director, sent the following letter to clarify PSC’s stand on the :conceptualization and formation of the PSC Rationalization Plan for Athletes and Coaches (PSC-RPAC)”:

“The Philippine Sports Commission has sent out a depressing and potentially disastrous letter.”

The main intention of our letter to all NSAs – first and foremost – is to formally inform them of our new initiative on the PSC-RPAC.

It is indeed a depressing reality that most of the existing national athletes are already nearing age 30, some are over 30, and they have been in the national team for more than 10 years already. Results from previous international competitions, such as the 2006 Doha Asian Games, 2007 Kurat Southeast Asian Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games obviously speak for the deteriorating performance of our athletes.

The formation of PSC-RPAC does not attempt to compete, duplicate or even belittle the existing recruitment system of various NSAs. The PSC would like to work hand-in-hand with the NSAs in discovering new talents because we believe that across all sports, there is no comprehensive recruitment and selection system with clear plans for succession of talents and new breed of young recruits.

“The Philippines shall have no national athletes come New Year... The commission shall subsequently operationalize a recruitment and selection program each year”...

This practice is not new. It is an old policy of the PSC and has been a customary practice that the PSC suspends the provision of monthly allowances to members of the national team competing in major international events (SEA Games, Asian Games and Olympic Games) after the conclusion of the event. What is good with PSC-RPAC is that it has a provision for retro-activation of allowance once athletes are re-selected to the national pool (please see Secton VIII of the concept/overview of PSC-RPAC).

Under the PSC-RPAC, the country will form a national team who will be selected to participate and represent the country in international meets calendared for the year. Again, the PSC-RPAC will actively coalesce with various NSAs and will make full use of their technical expertise, exemplifying again the culture of partnership and collective undertaking. However, inclusion in the national team will principally now be based on the level of performance, scientific records and skills of athletes and coaches.

The PSC shall also re-intensify its network-building partnership and collaboration with the DepEd, CHED, PNP, AFP, DILG and LGUs. They are our potential partners in the recruitment and selection process pursuant to Executive Order Nos. 63-64 creating the local sports councils in the grassroots levels nationwide. Further, we could scout talents through sports champions organized by the DepEd and CHED, like the Palarong Pambansa, SCUAA and PRISAA.

“This will open the door to undeserving athletes making the team in lieu of their more experienced counterparts, since it will be the PSC deciding on who gets on the team or not.”

There are around 86 million Filipinos nationwide. We should have at least 3 to 5 thousand athletes who are highly competitive. For instance, the talents identification program of taekwondo is remarkable. They have more than one thousand training athletes from various clubs nationwide.

Since the PSC-RPAC will operate on a mutual undertaking, the PSC will not be the one to decide whether an athlete is eligible or not for inclusion to national team. Rather, it will be the athletes’ performance and records that shall be the binding principle of the recruitment process vis-à-vis the set level of criteria for particular sport and for particular international sporting event.