Villar vows sports will get the break

MANILA, Philippines - Manny Villar had already covered a lot of bases even before the first question concerning Philippine sports was raised.

“Will sports be a priority in your government?” he was asked.

“Definitely,” he answered back.

Of course, that’s if and when Villar gets elected as the next President in May. Still, this early, he has in his mind ways how to make sports a priority and ways to make sports part of his nation building.

Of the many presidential candidates, Villar, former House speaker and Senate president, is the only one with his hands dipped in sports, as the biggest supporter of billiards, a sports well loved by Filipinos.

Villar looked so comfortable in his trademark orange shirt, light gray jacket, blue jeans and comfort shoes when he faced the top editors of The STAR in an open discussion that lasted more than two hours.

And he looked so comfortable when he talked about sports.

“All of us candidates will say we will do something about it. But the question is, “Do you love sports? Mahal mo ba talaga,” said Villar.

He said he does, and vowed to make sure that his love for sports will not change once he becomes President.

“But I will push for sports where we can excel,” he said without mentioning billiards, the one closest to his heart, as a perennial source of pride for the country, no thanks to legendary players like Efren Reyes and Django Bustamante.

“Sports is important because it inspires the people. And it’s very important if you want to build self-confidence among them. There are sports with natural constraints, like basketball despite our height, but I will push for sports where we can excel,” he went on.

Villar said he wants Filipinos, not only the athletes, to be competitive on all fronts, then dropped the name of Manny Pacquiao, the boxing icon from Sarangani, as currently the biggest source of pride for the country.

“You can see and sense the pride in all of us each time Manny Pacquiao wins. But we need more of him if we want to fully restore our national pride. It may come from sports or even arts. It’s very important helping develop the confidence of Filipinos,” he said.

He knows it’s not going to be easy. In fact, he believes it’s going to be difficult.

“It will take some time but we can achieve it through sports. What I want is a very competitive nation, very competitive athletes. To do this we must start giving away significant rewards,” he said.

The Philippine Sports Commission, under chairman Harry Angping, is headed toward that direction, and for the Laos SEA Games last December, he increased the cash incentive for each gold from P100,000 to P300,000.

And there’s more to come by the time the next Asian Games is held in Guangzhou in November or the London Olympics in 2012.

Villar, if he gets lucky, will play a big part in it.

“I want our athletes to produce the medals. Maybe we can finally win the Olympic gold. But I want our athletes to show me the medals, and not reports. I don’t care about the reports. I won’t read them. But show me the medals, the gold, and we continue to move up,” he said.

The senator who claimed he had planted more than a million trees in his lifetime said the country’s top sports officials must put their act together even before they can think of ways to amend certain laws, like a fixed term for PSC officials or changes in the PSC structure.

“Nauubos ang oras sa pulitika (Time is spent on politics) when we should all be concerned on winning the medals, which is the true measure in sports,” he said.

Before taking off, and talking about other sensitive issues, Villar said sports is a clear reflection of the country.

“If there’s a deterioration in sports then it’s a reflection of what is wrong in our country, of what is wrong with our arts, culture, education, health, employment or even our movie industry,” he said as everyone listened.

“Everything seems to go with sports. You look at sports and you see a picture of our country.”

Under his watch, if and when given the chance, Villar yesterday vowed to change all these.