The origins of Philsports

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) election for president, which is held every four years, almost always precipitates a discussion on sports development. Candidates for the POC top post often make part of their platform their commitment to institutionalize sports planning as one of the ingredients for a sustained and continuing sports development program.

Only time however will tell if these leaders will have the political will to lead such an effort. They run the risk of being distracted by POC and Philippine sports’ day-to-day and firefighting concerns and overwhelmed by the influence of those who have nothing substantive to contribute to strategic thinking and therefore stand to lose some power if such planning mechanisms are introduced and its results carried out. Such people thrive in a muddled situation where expertise in political maneuvering is the only way to survive. Any plan for medium and long term sports development will have to consider the Philippine Institute for Sports (Philsports) which then President Fidel V. Ramos ordered me, as chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) to set up in December 1995 during the awards night of the Philippine Sportswriters’ Association at the Holiday Inn Manila. On May 16, 1996, Ramos issued a memorandum directing the PSC, in coordination with the Department of Interior and Local Government, “to establish a Philippine National Institute for Sports within the PSC.”

Six months later, in November 1996, President Ramos inaugurated the Philsports right where it is presently located. Anyone therefore who says that the Philsports was established in the last few years is sadly (and unforgivably) mistaken.

Why is there a need for an organization like Philsports? Why was President Ramos so eager to set it up? It was clear that the leadership knew that the backbone of any sports development plan was a viable network and program for coaching and training athletes that knew how to use sports science. In short, the key to any realistic sports program is a coaching base that would be the hub of further nationwide development of coaching. This radiation effect would be created through, among other programs, the training of trainers or some such similar programs.

Socio economic development programs have also shown that a cardinal rule in carrying out and empowering program planners and implementers was to provide for constant human resource development and capability building.

The beginnings of Philsports in the mid-60s ironically had the same gloomy picture of sports disaster like the 2008 Beijing Olympics debacle.

The year was 1966. The setting was the Fifth Asian Games in Bangkok. The outcome for the Philippines had been aptly called the “Bangkok Debacle.” The Philippines had won only two gold medals. On top of that, the defending champion basketball team not only lost the gold but also ended up in sixth place – the worst finish of any national basketball team in the history of Philippine participation in the Asian Games.

Back home, Ferdinand Marcos instructed then Secretary of Education Carlos P. Romulo to do a study of the current status of Philippine sports, determine the reasons for our dismal performance and submit recommendations that would arrest the decline.

The report submitted by Romulo on March 6, 1967, “Toward a National Sports Development Program,” outlined the steps that the national government should take to improve athletic performance. One of the major recommendations was for the University of the Philippines (UP) “to organize an Institute of Physical Education to train coaches and physical education instructors and to avoid duplication, the government should study ways of merging the National College of Physical Education with it.”

In response to the recommendation of Romulo, who was also president of UP, an Institute of Physical Education was organized at the UP Department of Physical Education in the summer of 1967. Selected physical education teachers and coaches from public schools, whose training was funded by the Department of Education, attended the Institute. This was the first attempt by the government to establish a training center for physical education and sports. After the summer of 1967, however, the Institute died a natural death.

In that year, the National College of Physical Education, founded in 1932 by the then Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF), offered a Certificate of Physical Education during the summer months. But because of its limited resources and lack of permanent faculty, the College could not really be regarded as a training center for physical education and sports. Nevertheless, it served an important function in training teachers and coaches of physical education and sports coming from the provinces.

Next week, we will discuss the continuing clamor for a national training center.