Sport as a human right

In this day and age, it would be hard to imagine a place where sport has not come to.

Even in far-flung places in Africa, where all the images we see are of extreme hardship, starvation and often death, satellite television has brought sport. In many of these places, the NBA and other organizations have brought their games.

Here in the Philippines, there are still places where nobody has brought sport to, shockingly enough, because of the difficulty of access. But come April 28, there will be one less place that sports training has not been exposed to.

In January of this year, the Human Rights Community Development Program of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines wrote an urgent letter to Rev. Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, president of the Ateneo de Manila University, through Ricky Palou, the school’s athletics director. In it, the missive mentioned two major events for the school, its 150th founding anniversary, and the 10th anniversary of the Ateneo Basketball School (ABS). The CHR’s national program manager, Virginia Dandan, also brought up an urgent concern.

“It has long been established and acknowledged that indigenous populations in many countries are particularly vulnerable to human rights deprivations and abuses, and the Philippines is no exception,” her letter begins. “Indigenous peoples themselves identify the human rights issues they confront in their daily lives and that are barriers to their development.”

Mrs. Dandan’s letter goes on to describe the Kankana-ey of Kibungan, Benguet, a mere 69 kilometers from Baguio City on paper, but a torturous five-hour hurdle through rough mountain paths of rock and bare earth. The community there is, by any standards, poor. She adds their frustration and feeling of inferiority that their young are unable to engage in sports, especially basketball, which the boys are unable to play. They are routinely defeated by other municipalities who have access to better roads, and at least some exposure to training.

“The idea of a basketball clinic being held in Kibungan is almost preposterous, certainly radical, a daunting challenge to any sports outreach program,” she admits. “Still, Kibungan is authentic rural grassroots and helping the young people of Kibungan learn the proper way to play the game of basketball will give new meaning to the notion of “outreach”, promoting among the youth and the community, a love of the game and instilling the values intrinsic in sports: a healthy self-esteem, teamwork and camaraderie, a sense of responsibility and fair play.”

The powerful letter met a positive response from the ABS, and a natural ally in the university’s basketball program head, coach Ricky Dandan, who happens to be her son.

“First of all, how can I say no to my mom,” Dandan laughs. “But kidding aside, this is what the Ateneo Basketball School is all about and we will gladly travel to Kibungan and share our knowledge with the youth there. This is what we are called to do.”

Dandan is leading a team of nine coaches and staff, equipped with basketballs and 300 commemorative Ateneo UAAP championship shirts and jerseys donated by Adidas to Kibungan. They all spend a night in Baguio, then make the arduous five-hour trek the next day, and live among the Kankana-ey for the next few days. They are mostly poor farmers who could not afford basketballs, much less branded merchandise, cut off from their surroundings because of their meager lot. The coaches of the ABS are not entirely sure what they will come upon there, but for certain they will bake in the sun as the Kankana-ey have all their lives, this time to pass on a sport, a diversion, a pastime, and a blessing. Upon their return to urban living in the first week of May, they will surely have been transformed.

“It is stunning to think that we still have countrymen who have not had the chance to be taught the beautiful game we love so much, and have not been able to play it,” Dandan shakes his head. “These situations make us grateful we are able to do what we do.”

Ateneo’s hymn exhorts its graduates to go “down from the hill” and among the less fortunate of its countrymen, to be “men for others.” In real terms, that means days of travel and discomfort, perhaps danger, to pass on the lessons of a game, mirroring what American missionaries and teachers did over a hundred years ago. At the same time, reminding us all that everyone has a right to play, whatever sport they so choose.

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The Beach Football Association of the Philippines will have the following competitions this summer in Subic from April 25 to 26; Naga from May 2 to 3, and the national championships in Cebu from May 9 to 10. For more information, contact Rea Villa at 0915-871-4952.