Solon rues politics in sports, calls for unity

MANILA, Philippines - In aid of legislation, the Senate Commitee on Games, Amusements and Sports yesterday looked into the problems hounding Philippine sports, and came up with the impression that unless the top sports leaders put their act together it will always be the Filipino athletes who will suffer.

“The less politics there are the more fluid and the more cohesive the relationships will be between the POC (Philippine Olympic Committee) and the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission),” said Sen. Pia Cayetano who authored Resolution No. 1541 calling for an inquiry on the matter.

“And that’s my wish for Philippine sports. I hope everybody can set aside their own personal ambition to ensure that we work toward eliminating whatever stumbling blocks there are to allow the athletes to peform better,” said the senator who has a soft spot for sports, being a triathlete.

She observed too much politics in sports these days that PSC chairman Harry Angping and POC president Jose Cojuangco Jr. as well as the leaders of the different NSAs (national sports associations) give more time arguing and disagreeing on policies and principles when they should be thinking of the athletes.

Cayetano cited the case of the RP cycling team in the Laos SEA Games last December when all 13 Filipino entries failed to compete because they were caught in between two groups disputing the leadership in the Philippine Cycling Federation. As a result, the country missed the chance to win gold medals in cycling.

“I challenge all the (cycling) officials to resign. I personally know the cyclists from both teams and they don’t really personally care who is the head of the NSA is. At the end of the day, all they want is to compete. I have nothing against anyone. What I’m saying is that for the sake of the athletes let’s recognize that if it’s the leadership that’s causing the confusion then they must resign,” she said.

The country’s top sports officials, except for Angping who begged off due to a previous commitment, attended the hearing and ended up putting the blame on one another. Sen. Gregorio Honasan, chairman of the sub-committee in sports, said this is the main reason why the hearing was called.

“We’ve lost our patience because these bickerings have been going on before the public. I’m just appealing for everybody’s sense of patriotism. There were hearings in the past but it was contaminated by too much partisan and political activity. Now we hope that this will give us more focus,” said Honasan.

He added that the next hearing may come two weeks from now.

“Everything that was said today, we will ask them to back them up with written submissions. Then we will invite them again but without the cameras so they can talk more candidly. Earlier, they were starting to bicker and so we tried to bring back to focus and deal with the issues. Otherwise there will be an impasse,” said Honasan.