No politics in sports, says Erap

MANILA, Philippines - Get rid of politics then get that elusive gold.

Former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada, certainly not a total stranger to sports, offered this as the one and only solution that should help the Philippines end its long, tedious and painful search for its first Olympic gold.

The animatic 72-year-old leader, who once served as team manager of the RP basketball team to the Southeast Asian Games, said there’s just too much politics in sports that so much time is spent on it than on the athletes.

Since the Philippines started competing in the Olympics, all it’s got in its pocket are a couple of silver, both of them coming from boxing, and a bunch of bronze medals. But never the gold, the one that really matters.

“They should remove politics in sports,” said Estrada, one of the leading presidential candidates for the May elections, when he visited The Star office late Friday evening.

“Then maybe we can win the gold in the Olympics. But even if I become president again, I cannot promise you anything until we remove politics in sports. It’s a pity because we are a competent people,” said Estrada.

He had just wrapped up a back-breaking four-day provincial sortie when he walked in at 9:30 p.m. He treated the newspaper’s employees to a well-catered dinner then engaged its top editors, president and CEO Miguel G. Belmonte to a two-hour open discussion.

There’s never a dull moment around the former President and Friday was no exception. He gamely fielded questions ranging from business and economics, national defense and corruption to his smoking, fashion sense and yes, his sex life.

With his famous one-liners, he had the packed conference room bursting with laughter a good number of times.

Until way past midnight the discussion rolled, and Estrada’s campaign manager, Ernesto Maceda, later described it as “the most wide-ranged, most extensive and most candid” one so far in their campaign to win back the presidency.

“We did not prepare for this because we were out four days in the field and sleeping at two in the morning. You threw the most candid questions and you got the most candid answers. Well, he does have a platform and that he knows what to do,” said Maceda.

Even when Estrada talked briefly about sports, it was very clear that he had something to say.

“Of course, I will make it a priority,” he said, adding that any sport where Filipinos are capable of competing will get support from his government.

“All the sports where we can compete. But we should remove politics from sports. We should remove politics. And there’s also corruption, from what I hear,” said Estrada, the man who opened the doors for actors to become politicians.

The former mayor of San Juan who became a senator and vice president before assuming the presidency in 1998 mentioned the now-defunct Project: Gintong Alay under the Marcos regime as the perfect model of what a sound sports program should be.

“We had Michael Keon (Marcos’ nephew and now governor of Ilocos Norte) and the Gintong Alay then. And we produced a lot of champions then. We had Lydia de Vega then. Ngayon? Wala. Zero,” he said.

Of course he was talking about amateur sports, because if he was thinking of professional sports there’s no way he would pass up on Manny Pacquiao, now regarded as the greatest boxer of his era.

Estrada and Pacquiao are no strangers to each other as well, and in fact, sometime last year, they sat down at least twice regarding some political team-up that never really pushed through. The boxer has decided to support a different presidential candidate.

After a failed bid in 2007, Pacquiao is once again running for Congress in his hometown in Sarangani. Does Erap have any advice for the 31-year-old superstar?

“No comment na ako diyan,” he said.

That was the only time he said so.