Last of (unsolicited) advice to Aquino

This is the last of four columns on our (unsolicited) advice to incoming President Noynoy Aquino on the proposed sports program of his Administration.

Conceptually, the sports programs of the different sectors constitute the base of the sports development pyramid and provide the channels of participation by a greater proportion of the population. These channels eventually serve as the feeder for high level or elite sports.

Multi-staged competitions are staged for the different sports sectors with the outstanding teams and athletes representing their sectors in the Philippine National Games (PNG), the local version of the Olympics. The PNG, apart from being a “celebration of sports”, serves as the vehicle for identifying the most talented athletes who move on to high-level sports. These athletes, as members of the national athletes’ pool, are further honed through training and international competitions. The development framework for Philippine sport therefore follows the pyramid model.

To make operational the framework, objectives and priority programs, eight key strategic focus areas are proposed:

1. Develop opportunities for sports participation and enjoyment - the greatest number of Filipinos, regardless of age, gender, talent, capability, creed and political persuasion must participate in sporting activities together. The focus is on participation for health, recreation and catharsis, particularly at the grassroots. This will entail, among other things, supporting the existing and recommended sector programs of the Departments of Education (DepEd), National Defense and the Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and government corporations.

2. Undertake programs for the development of high level athletes and promotion of sports excellence – the structure for the development of high-level athletes is in place. It features the school sports competition development program starting with intramurals and culminating in the Palarong Pambansa and the CHED National Games.

3. Enhance networking with sports development partners and stakeholders – the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) must build strong and mutually supportive linkages with sports development players (such as the Philippine Olympic Committee or POC and the National Sports Associations or NSAs) to ensure coordinated actions and to promote synergy in the pooling of efforts and resources. Government, through the PSC, however expects the POC and the NSAs to take on increasingly greater accountability in the development of their respective sports. Government however realizes that to be effective in its enabling and facilitative role, the NSAs have to be empowered, organizationally enabled and strengthened.

4. Foster the delivery of support services and systems – government has to be aware that a successful national sports system must have in place, support and ancillary interventions across a broad range of services including education, coaching, administration, sports science, sports information, facility management and provision of sporting equipment. In this connection, reactivating the already-established Philippine Institute for Sports (PHILSPORTS) in word and deed must be immediately done to ensure the holistic development of athletes.

5. Implement policies and programs for the enhancement of equity and access in sports and gender balance – equity and access principles underline the development thrusts and social reform agenda in the entirety of the Noynoy Aquino administration. Sport is not an exception. The Administration should seek to provide the differently-abled, indigenous cultural communities, those coming from economically-deprived sectors, senior citizens and other disadvantaged groups, increased opportunities to benefit from participation in sports.

6. Mobilize resources for sports development – there are a variety of strategies that can be explored with the private sector for programs that are large-scale, grassroots-oriented, long-term and have mass appeal. These strategies need to be innovative, win-win and sustainable.

7. Increase awareness of sports benefits – there exist biases on the importance of sports for human and national development. Even the longest-tenured sports leaders regard sport merely as a series of games and leagues and do not recognize the value of sport for health, recreation and catharsis: sports for a healthy and alert citizenry, for empowerment, for democracy-in-action; and for the development of values, teamwork, fair play and the concept of right and wrong.

8. Strengthen the PSC’s capability to deliver services and implement a truly Sports-for-All Program – in order to carry out the new Administration’s sports development philosophy and programs and to make such a philosophy operative, the PSC requires a number of institutional strengthening interventions. It must, for example, structure itself to allow it to meet the objectives of the updated Master Plan for Philippine Sports.