Rejoinder to A. Magno's 'Olympian'

I can understand why Mr. Alex Magno would write (First Person column entitled Olympian on 25 October 2008) something to support President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s half brother, Art Macapagal.

What I cannot understand, however, is how Mr. Magno can miss the inherent responsibility of opinion makers to do the required research and lazily perform a soft sell at the expense of another individual, in this case the undersigned.

Mr. Magno’s failure to do the legwork was very evident as his piece was spiked with inconsistencies and false claims and miserably lacked correct information. When he called the Beijing Olympics a total failure to account for the Philippine participation, he conveniently did not highlight the fact that Mr. Macapagal’s shooting association, produced the same results as the other national sports associations that were involved in the RP campaign. The shooting association entry, Mr. Eric Ang, who practices in a range that he owns, is a wild card entry and not a qualifier. While it is unfortunate that Mr. Ang was ousted in the first round, the Philippine Olympic Committee lauds Mr. Ang’s sense of nationalism. Mr. Ang, like the rest of our athletes who competed in Beijing, is not a failure because he broke his Philippine record while others even did better by surpassing their Southeast Asian Games marks.

Mr. Magno also did not bother to check our attendance book in the past two years which indicates that Mr. Macapagal attended five of 13 general assembly meetings and half the time he was present was only in the latter part of this year obviously so he can initiate campaign plans for the POC top post, which will be decided in the last week of November.

Mr. Macapagal is in the same boat as every other National Sports Association. We all have difficulty raising funds for our individuals programs. In our present predicament, our surnames do not solicit financial support from private corporations but the strength and viability of our programs. What Mr. Magno eloquently described as Mr. Macapagal’s grand plan for the POC is not a program, it is the same wish list carried by past POC presidents and even the present one. Out of curiosity, I wish to ask Mr. Magno if he asked Mr. Macapagal why these issues were not raised in 2004 and the POC members chose to elect me POC President unopposed. I am pretty sure that our dilemma has not changed in the past four years — all NSAs still have problems raising money.

I have warned my supporters to avoid making this a public campaign. After all, there are only 40 of us who will vote. I have suggested that we call an early straw vote to cut the campaign period because I was afraid that individuals like Mr. Magno, who do not know much about the hard issues of sports much less the inner workings of the POC and what it stands for, would drag us to the dirty type of politics that characterize national elections with which Mr. Magno is undoubtedly very familiar.

After the November elections, POC members must work harmoniously together if we are to improve our position in the world of sports. We do not campaign here because there are benefits for the winners and their supporters much like in the circle where Mr. Magno moves. We serve the POC without compensation and in most cases spend our own money to fulfil our obligations to the country. As POC president I make myself available 24/7 and my pockets are wide open to achieve our goals and objectives.

For the information of Mr. Magno, who apparently knows very little about sports, I wish to mention a few of my achievements that might convince him that I brought honor and distinction to this country while he was not looking and so mesmerized with the Olympic participation of Mr. Macapagal.

I handled the Philippine Junior Bowlers for many years during the martial law era and proud to say we won a hefty share of gold medals in international competitions and on one occasion captured the overall championship. There was also a time when I became president of the Republic of the Philippines Golf Association and during this period our golfers amassed gold medals and overall championships in international contests. I also took over the helm of the Philippine Equestrian Association and my daughter Mikee won the gold medal in the Busan Asian Games and our team took silver, an accomplishment which is a first for our country.

My personal favorite, of course, is the overall championship of the 23rd Southeast Asian Games which the Philippines won for the first time in 2005 and of which I was the Philippine Organizing Committee chairman. In the succeeding edition of the SEAG in Thailand, the Philippines produced the second largest total of medals won by 60 percent of Filipino athletes that participated.

Under my watch at the POC, the country also came up with its best performance in 40 years of participation in the Asian Games.

I will stop here and allow Mr. Magno to process claims he had made that I do not communicate well with other members of the POC and that I should be more patriotic to turn over the leadership to a habitual absentee and a candidate coming from left field.

In parting I would like to assure Mr, Magno that I am a citizen of the same country and his wish to see us improve in the world of sports is not possible with a Magno-Macapagal alliance.— JOSE COJUANGCO JR., President, Philippine Olympic Committee