Unsolicited advice for new president

By this time, and assuming that nothing of catastrophic proportions has fatally ruined the country’s first attempt at nationwide automated elections, it should be clear who the new President and Vice President of the Philippines are. It would, therefore, be timely to propose a sports agenda for the incoming administration.

I had the privilege of stating portions of how I think the new leadership should spend its resources and efforts in the field of sports and wellness last Wednesday evening, May 5, when I was invited to speak on the topic in ANC’s Hardball sports program with hosts Bill Velasco, Boyet Sison and Boom Gonzalez.

I started with the same premises we enunciated in the Master Plan for Philippine Sports (1996-2000) we prepared with the help of stakeholders, the Australian Sports Commission, Australian Institute of Sport and Price-Waterhouse, but which succeeding administrations neglected to update and even look at.

In frustration, I stated that the Plan had been stacked in the “circular file” (aka, waste basket) but in the end, I found out it did end in the said circular file. It was reported one successor ordered his people to change a few words and submit the Plan to the National Economic and Development Authority which had become more aggressive in following up the updating of the document.

Another successor went through the motions of sending representatives to the NEDA who were given the authority to listen, that’s all. I doubt if the present PSC leadership, to whom I gave copies of the eight-volume document, has even gone over it in the course of formulating what it says are its programs.

At any rate, as stated in the Plan, it is clear that individual Filipinos and the community benefit from government support for organized sporting programs. These benefits can be categorized under four broad headings: 1. Health; 2. Social cohesion, harmony and empowerment; 3. Actualization of social justice; and 4. International goodwill.

The positive relationship between sport and health has long been generally accepted. Active and healthy people live longer quality lives and are thus able to contribute over a longer period of time to society with the use of their knowledge and experience.

It has also long been accepted that sport provide the necessary levels of physical activity and social involvement that will help address problems of society like population increases, ageing populations, employment and unemployment trends. Excellence in international sports, on the other hand, plays a pivotal role in enhancing national pride and dignity and excellence bestows honor and prestige upon the nation.

The general community and specific population groups derive social benefits from sports. Self-esteem, constructive use of time, achievement of excellence, general enjoyment and physical and psychological well-being are essential in a time of rapidly changing social conditions, values and philosophies.

The key however to the success of a mass-based sports program is people empowerment. The empowerment will however only come if people in the barangays are trained properly and if they see their involvement will benefit their own local community.

With respect to social justice, access to sport and sporting opportunities that later on lead to upward social and economic mobility helps level the playing field, so to speak. Sports can therefore be an instrument for peace building and broader development. This paradigm is consistent with and supportive of the view of the United Nations (UN) that sports should be an instrument for advancing the Millennium Development Goals. Sports must be open to all and be more egalitarian.

Sport is a tool for international diplomacy. Participation in high-caliber international elite sports and outstanding performance in such sports raise the prestige of successful nations.

In the Hardball interview, I suggested that the anchors of the new President’s program are the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the UNESCO’s International Charter of Physical Education and Sport (which the Philippines signed in 1978) and the still-to-be-updated Master Plan.

I reiterated the Master Plan statement that the ultimate aim of sports development is to facilitate the participation of all Filipinos in sports and wellness activities while providing opportunities for especially gifted and talented athletes to excel especially in the international sporting arena.

The challenge that the new administration faces is to avoid the inevitable calls from sectors of the community, such as the media, for a “quick fix”. Developing a universal mass based sports program for a country of 90 million cannot be achieved overnight in the face of other pressing social and economic priorities. The “patch work” or “band aid” approach, which has been marked by adding new programs with neither rhyme nor reason but hailed by some sectors (including media) as “good” projects, to meet very short term problems, a number of them imagined, should be avoided.