United front augurs well for RP sports

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine sports, under the new administration and a new-found unity among its top leaders, has nowhere to go but up.

Monico Puentevella, chairman of the Philippine Olympic Committee, yesterday said it’s high time for sports in the country to regain its bearing following a decline in performance over the last few years.

“This is the moment. This is the day,” said Puentevella, a former congressman and current head of the RP weightlifting association.

“We are together now. Kapag tayo pumalpak pa, wala na dapat sisihin kung hindi kaming mga leaders (And if we still fail, there’s no one else to blame but us sports leaders),” he said yesterday.

The Philippines won the overall crown in the 2005 SEA Games in Manila, but found itself in sixth place in the 2007 edition in Thailand. Last year, in Laos, the Philippines moved a notch higher to fifth place overall.

It’s no reason to celebrate because the SEA Games is the lowest level of regional competition.

But Puentevella said he sees a big turnaround in the international scene for the Filipino athletes, and it may come in this year’s Asian Games in Guangzhou or the 2012 Olympics in London. The next SEA Games is set in Jakarta in 2011.

“There’s no other way but to succeed. Baka maka-tsamba sa London (Maybe we can score in London),” he said of the next Olympics Games.

The last medal for the country in the quadrennial event came in 1996, a silver courtesy of boxer Mansueto Velasco.

In the 2004 Olympics, Thailand won three gold, a silver and four bronze medals while Indonesia, another fierce rival of the Philippines in the SEA Games, brought home one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Puentevella said it’s time to look forward, now that the Philippines is under a new leadership in President Aquino, and a set of officers at the Philippine Sports Commission who can work hand in hand with their POC counterparts.

The POC had been at odds with former PSC chairman Harry Angping who was recently replaced by Richie Garcia.

In an unprecedented move, the POC general assembly the other day declared Angping, a former congressman in Manila, persona-non-grata in the Olympic body. Go Teng Kok of athletics reportedly called for a total ban of Angping in the sports scene.

The POC cited 20 reasons against Angping who did not comment on the issue.

“Now we have a President who has interest in sports, and we have a PSC board who can work with the POC,” said POC president Jose Cojuango Jr., who also sounded very optimistic of the country’s chances under the current set-up.