Sports politicians rule PSC, POC, NSAs

LONDON – Whenever the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Philippine Sports Commission are asked by media for a forecast in the Southeast Asian Games, Asian Games or Olympics, they either decline to mention a definite number of gold medals or say “we’ll give it our best shot.”

It happens every year.

The reason is the PSC and POC are two different entities which don’t always agree on their pre-defined objectives even if they sit side by side on the same dinner table. The PSC, the funding arm, wants NSAs to win the gold. The NSAs, on the disbursing end, only want to participate.

Funny but it’s true, and the effect is often devastating.

The PSC and POC came to a head in 2009 when they could not agree on which and how many athletes should be sent to the Laos SEA Games. The PSC insisted only gold medal potentials must go because the funds were limited. The POC said everybody must go.

The result was they had to take separate flights to Laos. One was for elite athletes with gold medal potentials and funded by the PSC. The other was funded by the POC and consisting of “other” athletes.

Both had their own separate uniforms, medical staff, allowance, secretariat and even media staff. The medical staff of the PSC came from the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine. The doctor of the other side was a chiropractor.

They even had two separate cycling teams. The PSC-backed team, which had a UCI (International Cycling Federation) license, was not accredited by the POC and could not go to the SEAG. The POC-backed team went to the SEAG but was not allowed to participate by the UCI.

The POC delegation’s chef de mission was the president of sepak takraw, a perennial medal loser in the SEA Games, who fielded the second largest team with 14 sepak takraw athletes.

Only POC officials went to the SEA Games. The POC completed the insult by not inviting the PSC.

The result was “other” athletes failed miserably. They were a source of embarrassment. The Philippines was a poor sixth overall. The PSC blamed the POC for the debacle. The POC blamed the PSC for not giving support.

Looking for a solution, the POC made an orchestrated move to unseat the incumbent PSC chair, Harry Angping, who had already drawn the ire of NSAs which were put on the spot, and brought to the courts, for non-liquidation of advances amounting to millions.

In pursuing an ouster move that could not prosper, the POC said the PSC chairman should be replaced by a person nominated by the POC.

That indeed happened in President Aquino’s term. Hardly had the President taken his oath of office that the POC announced the chairman should not stay a minute longer.

POC president Peping Cojuangco gathered his annointed officials and led the march to Malacanang to endorse them to his nephew, the President.

Malacanang insiders said the power brokers could not decide on the chairman from a thick list of aspirants, but on their second try, the group got the nod.

The first announcement the PSC chairman issued was an “amnesty” he planned to give to all erring NSAs who had not liquidated millions of advances.

The POC-PSC partnership hardly solved the problem of funding, training and sports development. In the two years that followed, NSAs not close to the POC hierarchy had difficult access to the funds because they were now coursed through the POC.

And as the November POC elections are fast approaching, contenders are securing their bailiwick to get majority votes from the 40 regular NSA members, promising them support if elected. With politics added to the mix, the problem of sports will go on.

By putting itself at the disposal of the POC, the PSC antagonized many organizations, prominent of which is the athletics association of Go Teng Kok.

The usually loquacious Go, who was also elected karatedo president, was not recognized by the POC, with which he had long fallen out of grace. The case went to the courts and a vote of the majority in the POC General Aseembly subsequently declared him a “persona non grata.”

The PSC became an unwitting participant in the POC quarrel. Go could not use the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex oval for the training of his athletes, who are quartered in the RMSC Tower beside it because it was now used by the Azkals. Neither could they gain access to the Ultra, which is under a state of disrepair because of the regular use of the field for football.

Not getting as much support for the foreign participation of his athletes abroad for London, Go would spend his personal money on top of what he shells out for the monthly salaries of his staff and other administrative expenses.

The PSC has also touched raw nerves in the sporting community. One of them is the swimming association.

In 2007, swimming association president Mark Joseph called up Arafura Games organizers to tell them Filipino swimmer Dale Echavez was not a member of his association. The organizer should not allow them to participate at the risk of being suspended by the international swimming federation. The organizers awarded the gold medal to the girl, then 12, and hastily removed it from her at backstage.

When PSC chairman Richie Garcia assumed, in a dual capacity, the role of chef de mission last year in the same multi-event competition, some of the members of the Philippine delegation included swimmers who were not members of PASA.

He thought everything was all right until the organizers received a text message from the PASA president telling them of the membership status of some members.?The “non-members” were allowed to swim in the heats but even those who qualified were not allowed to compete in the final. Garcia could not lift a finger and failed to prevail upon the swimming president, a powerful POC official, who has a long history of animosity with his detractors.

Former Sen. Nikki Coseteng, who headed the swimming team of Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, lodged a complaint with the Philippine ambassador to Australia, the Department of Justice and the President but no action was taken.

There have been complaints of the swimming association blocking the participation of swimmers in ASEAN meets in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. One of the complaints, harassment of minors, is pending with the Quezon City prosecutor’s office.

The latest controversy revolved around a new policy of the PSC requiring all associations to seek prior clearance from PASA before they could get travel tax and airport fee exemption to compete abroad.

Exasperated, the parent of one swimmer had the request retrieved from the table of the PSC chairman and paid for the taxes himself.

These “small problems” are some of the day-to-day irritants that hamper the training of elite athletes and the promotion of sports.

The Senate again summoned sports officials this year, this time Garcia, to explain what’s going in the sport he is tasked to promote. The occasion was a statement of the POC discrediting the gold medal achievement of a rowing team in the world championships in Florida. The POC contended the team must not receive government bonuses because it is not a POC member, the tournament is not world class and the Filipinos were not the strongest.

Sensing the PSC chairman could not substantially answer questions without slinging mud at the POC, Sen. Trillanes, obviously impatient, asked: “Are you afraid of the POC?” The chairman admitted he owed his appointment to the uncle of the President.

The problem never ends.