Prioritize the future
Loosely described, priority is giving specific attention to someone or something, like prioritizing stuffing maletas with wads of money in total disregard of the malady the nation is in. Let the people swim in floodwaters, we’re dry anyway, they say.
Because politics is served morning, noon and nighttime here, I will say there’s always a misappropriation and misinformation of priorities in our sports programs, like the PSC imposing sanctions on the volleyball NSA for some unresolved concerns and one government agency callously claiming support to a young tennis ace for training which the family promptly denied.
I had said this before and I’ll say it again. Too many millions of pesos are spent on basketball yet we still struggle for victories against teams from the Asia-Pacific region. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big basketball fan but the fact remains that our Gilas national men’s team are just cannon fodder in basketball’s biggest stage especially against American and European powerhouses. And yes, call it whatever you like, some prominent names were excluded from the roster for the coming Asian Games in Japan, of which the Gilas are the defending champs.
And talking about the coming AG 2026 running from September 19 to October 4, I see potential medals especially in ju-jitsu with world champions Kimberly Custodio and Annie Ramirez, gymnastics with the Yulo brothers, weightlifting with Elreen Ando, EJ Obiena at pole vault and probably swimming anchored on Kayla Sanchez. Collectively, they could improve our medal tally (4 golds, 2 silvers, 12 bronze) from the China Games four years ago.
If the latest showing of our boxers in multiple weight classes from tournaments in Europe are an indication, then we are to improve from the lone silver medal we won thru the battle-scarred Eumir Marcial. Along with Marcial, Olympic medalists Nesthy Peticio, Aira Villegas and Carlo Paalam headlines the team to the Japan Games. If plans align, this team by itself could surpass the last 4-gold medal haul.
Gold medal hopeful Alex Eala has confirmed her participation in the AG 2026 with tennis events scheduled for the later part of September.
Junior athletes making good in recent international tournaments is pleasant news. They should be the ones given priority with funding, investing in the future. Nurturing them, there’s no need to pay millions of pesos from overseas based players every time an international sporting event comes.
If there is a world cup for intellectually incapacitated politicians and government officials, we could be perpetual champs. Aside from that senator whose analogy of finances is compared to trekking to mountains and forests, it includes that presidential mouthpiece maligning teachers. Damn. My mother and several aunts and uncles were teachers and they must be squirming in their graves hearing that insensitive remark.
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