Some thoughts on amendments to PSC law

We got hold of the proposed amendments to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Act or Republic Act 6847. The proposed amendments provide a more detailed description of how the share of the PSC from the PAGCOR contribution is to be determined, fix the terms for the PSC chairman and commissioners and refer to the National Physical Fitness and Sports Development Council (NPFSDC) which is organized all the way down to the Barangay Physical Fitness and Sports. The NPFSDC was created under Executive Orders 63 and 6 by President Fidel V. Ramos.

RA 6847 was signed into law by President Corazon C. Aquino on Jan. 24, 1990, a move that was to be a major part of the preparations for the Philippines hosting the 1991 Southeast Asian Games.

We submit that any new PSC law must substantially change the strategic focus of Philippine sports, promote the synergy between mass-based participation and elite sports (treating the two as if they were seamless parts of one whole system) and strengthen the role of sports in helping achieve the country’s overall development goals.

We would want to see, for example, a reiteration of the idea espoused by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the aim of UN activities involving sports is not the creation of new sporting champions, and the development of sports heroes but rather, sports (as a tool) for broader development and peace-building”.

In various past articles, we had referred to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Task Force on Sports which urged member states “to utilize sports for Health, Education, Social Development and Peace”. While not totally forgetting the idea that developing countries should also assist elite sports since sports at that high level also play important roles in nation-building, especially in international diplomacy and public relations at the global level, still, it must be emphasized that public funds (such as taxpayers’ money) should be used for the greatest good and number and not almost exclusively for a few hundred elite athletes who represent not even one percent of the population.

The proposed amendments could have also explored the real logic of children’s sports and the role they play in character-building and life-long commitment of to sports and physical fitness. Thus, reference could have been made to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), as espoused by former PSC chairman Perry Mequi.

It’s not wise to position children’s sports as just one cog in the entire plan to build up elite sports and in our search for sports heroes but rather to mention it because our youth are our biggest assets and that starting children early in sports without them prematurely specializing in one sport and being prematurely exposed to structured competitive sports, is the best way to promote wellness especially when children and youth have become tied down to sedentary activities such as computer-related games. Mequi says that 34.45 percent of Filipinos are obese and that’s about one-third of our population of 97 million, or about 33.5 million Filipinos.

If the proposed amendments had defined what the priorities of Philippine sports are given our own needs as a nation, these amendments could have set a spending pattern for the budget that reflects our priorities: a bias for and much stronger emphasis on mass participation or grassroots sports that, in the final analysis, is really in support of elite sports. Chances of choosing talented athletes from a million participants are better than from a 100,000.

Again, Mequi suggests (and this proposal, in my mind, needs further refinement), the PSC budget could be divided in percent as follows: 50 – grassroots sports; 20 – elite (with the balance needed coming from the private sector who can get the media values from their support for high level sports); 10 - children and youth sports, mainly for training and preparation for the Youth Olympic Games; 10 for gender equity and 10 for scholarships for advance and graduate studies in sports management and sports science overseas.

Sports practitioners and academics believe that scholarships must be provided for young Filipinos to take up graduate studies abroad since we really have to strengthen our professional training program in Physical Education and sports. We just don’t have the infrastructure at this point for such a program.

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D. Stanley Eitzen’s article, “American Sport in the New Millennium”, continues to arouse the interest of some readers who asked for more examples of sport creating bad sportsmanship. We highlighted a number of the 14 he cited. The others are: fans yelling racial slurs; coaches who recruit illegally, who alter transcripts and bribe teachers to keep players eligible, and who exploit players with no regard for their health or their education. More on Eitzen next week.