Despite irritants, animosities: Busy year ahead for Phl swimming

Last of Two Parts

Read Part 1 here

MANILA, Philippines - The early formation of the Philippine Swimming League was like the birth of a child – bloody. The birth pains continue to this day, three years from the time it was born.

The belief of the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association that it has the sole mandate or “exclusive franchise” from the Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Olympic Committee to promote swimming in the Philippines raised both legal and moral issues that remain unresolved.

With this thinking, the PASA maintains it alone has the sole right and power to perform the dual role  – train national athletes for international competitions and promote the sport on the grassroots level.

Under the policy, the PASA alone draws financial assistance from the PSC. On several occasions, the PASA had questioned PSC’s financial assistance to the PSL or even tax exemptions and airport fees for travelling swimmers and their coaches. When the PSC and the PASA imposed indirect travel bans by not granting “permit-to-travel orders,” the PSL had to seek assistance from senators for swimmers’ foreign trips.

For some time, the PSL was not granted the use of public pools like the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex and the Amoranto swimming pool because PASA and its member clubs alone are presumed to have access to these facilities. The PSC finally relented when sports advocate Sen. Nikki Coseteng started a barrage of protests on television lambasting PSC’s violation of the sports for all policy and PASA’s monopolistic Sports for the Few.

The second irritant was the international swimming federation ruling on “unauthorized relationship” with a non-member. Violation of this rule by PASA carries a suspension of two years, during which period it cannot compete in international tournaments like the SEA Games, Asian Games or Olympics or the FINA World Cup and World Championships.

The ruling is interpreted to mean PASA members cannot compete in PSL tournaments, and PSL members cannot compete in any PASA tournament like the national tryout for the Southeast Asian Games, and PASA-sanctioned tournaments like the G-League swimming series, the Palarong  Pambansa, and the PRISAA.

To make sure non-PASA members don’t get a chance to compete in a national tryout, the PASA totally abolished the national tryout for the selection of a national team to last year’s Olympic Games and this year’s SEA Games. The selection was by invitation.

The ruling has also affected the chance of non-members to compete in the UAAP and NCAA, whose coaches are members of PASA. Coaches of Ateneo, La Salle and University of the Philippines are warned by PASA not to grant swimming scholarships to non-members under penalty of suspension.

Such threat, of course, is empty because a president cannot suspend a member. Under corporation laws, only the PASA general assembly can suspend a member.

The ruling also affected the country’s participation in the Universiade, the Olympics for schools and colleges throughout the world, and a rival organization of the Olympics. The UAAP barred its UAAP swimmers from competing in the Universiade in Kazan Russia last July since the PSL was tasked to form the swimming team. Three who competed were suspended by the UAAP board, including Claire Adorna, UAAP standout who was the anchor of the UP champion team.

It had always blocked, though with little success, the participation of PSL swimmers in international age-group swimming competitions conducted by FINA member clubs. However, countries like Malaysia and Australia follow the rule for fear of FINA suspension. On at least two occasions, the PSL swimmers had been sent back to their country or stripped  of their medal in the swimming venue.

Despite these irritants, the PSL continues its longest-running community-based program in the country. It continues to reap success as it adopts a policy opposite that of PASA.  It operates on a policy of decentralization and democratization, allowing member clubs the widest latitude of freedom and autonomy to conduct activities of their own. Since membership is free and voluntary, the PSL does not impose restrictions on its swimmers, who may also join PASA competitions or become PASA members to get a chance to compete in the UAAP or in national tryouts.

Under the prevailing PSL policy of decentralization, regional offices are encouraged to conduct their own tournaments, train their coaches and swimmers, with help provided by the PSL in organizing swimming events, securing sponsorships and holding coaches seminars.

It currently has over 150 member swimming clubs all over the country with over 10 regional directors actively attending to the needs of these clubs at the city and provincial level.

The PSL hopes to be able to complete this year its roster of regional directors, which are the conduit of its nationwide network, ensuring that the program goes as far down as the grassroots level.

As NSA for schools, the PSL has integrated into its program a monitoring system that checks through its computer database the progress of every swimmer participating in its monthly competitions.  The computer database evaluates the swimmer’s performance in relation to the US Quadruple A standard (AAAA) for age groupers.

From these data, the PSL knows which swimmers have potentials to become varsity swimmers as early as high school and are recommended to schools and universities for swimming scholarships.

The year 2014 will be another hectic year for Philippine swimming with the PSL’s lineup of yearlong local and international competitions.

The PSL Circuit resumes with its 52nd leg, dubbed the Manila Times College Swimming Championship, on Jan. 26 at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

Then on Feb. 1, PSL tankers, with their coaches and officials, go to Cape Town, South Africa to compete in the Cape Town International Invitational set Feb. 8-10. Their participation is backed up by a memorandum of understanding that ensures PASA doesn’t come in the way.

Other international competitions on the PSL schedule will be held in Phuket Thailand (March 29-30), Perth, Australia (April 19-20), Shanghai, China (April 26), Hong Kong (May 9-11), Singapore in August and September, Fujian (China) in November and Bangkok in December. All these countries have now assured the PSL that they would ignore PASA’s threat of FINA suspension.

Local tournaments will be held monthly till December with foreign competitions scheduled in between.