POC: Apples and oranges

The Philippine Olympic Committee imbroglio has been splashed all over the sports pages, again calling into question the country’s capacity – or willingness – to host the impending Southeast Asian Games, at least internally. But with those purged from key committees last Monday looking for more stones to throw at the incumbents, all the issues are getting muddled. Mixing apples and oranges only makes sour juice. Nobody wants to swallow it.

There are two sides to every story, but one thing is clear: there is a lot of disrespect being sprayed around. The manner in which the disdain for certain people is being displayed demeans the office of the POC. Issues are not being answered, on both sides. 

POC president Ricky Vargas saw it as a necessary action to remove uncooperative officials from key positions of committee leadership. The response was yelling by one, and screaming expletives by another, likely out of embarrassment at losing such coveted thrones. But truth be told, some committees really weren’t functioning as they were mandated to. Membership controversies, for one, were never resolved. This is what propelled no less than four disenfranchised national sports associations to join forces as the Reform Philippine Sports (RP Sports) movement. And they are mulling criminal and civil charges against past and present POC officials. That’s how bad things have gotten.

Instead of answering charges, each side has on occasion brought up unrelated counter charges, as if to prove that the other side has no right to judge them. That seems immature and evasive. It basically has degraded into a stone-throwing contest, and no one is without sin.

Malacañang has issued a statement through spokesman Sal Panelo to insulate sports from politics. But it hasn’t really stopped any more shots from being fired. The worst that could happen is that the opposition in the POC board and Vargas’ group prevent each other from being able to function, like calling up the Committee’s bank to stop honoring checks with the latter’s signature. A paralyzed POC does not help anyone. They should rein in their emotions and behave like professionals.

The other side is questioning the formation of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc). This matter should be clarified. As sitting president of the NOC of the host country, Vargas is the de facto president of the SEA Games Federation. What powers does that include? And why has Phisgoc been having problems with financial resources? Most importantly, what can be done to help solve the problems? The longer these questions persist, the bigger the damage they could cause. They’ve also raised questions about purchases for the SEA Games. These must be cleared up.

Also, the sad fact is that those who have been caught committing offenses have never expressed any contrition for their sins. When Vargas liquidated and even paid back the tens of thousands of dollars taken from Olympic Solidarity just to save the hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships and allowances for the athletes, the public never heard an apology from the perpetrators. Instead, one of those caught with his hand in the cookie jar even went on the radio to say they were cleared by the International Olympic Committee, and had the nerve to demand an apology from this writer and fellow Star columnist Quinito Henson. First of all, the IOC does not involve itself in internal National Olympic Committee affairs. They just wanted the funds accounted for. Secondly, that’s why some of the funds had to be paid back, precisely because they couldn’t be accounted for. Third, where is the document proving that the IOC did, indeed, absolve anybody? It’s that kind of willful deception that creates more problems. Man up to your mistakes, if they were even mistakes to begin with, which – in this case – they weren’t.

Objectively, each side has its points, but is making them publicly. Frankly, I would rather hear that there was an issue and that it was already resolved, instead of one side playing victim and blaming the other like a child whose sibling took away their favorite toy.

Each side has demanded an early election. Vargas offered to do it in January; the opposition wants one immediately. Will the latter solve anything? At best, it’s a distraction. At worst, we will be changing horses midstream and reorganizing five months before the biggest SEA Games in history. Does that sound smart? 

Neither side is perfect. But continuing to fight loudly, publicly and childishly will dissolve any and all good will in the public eye. If they can’t work together, people will believe that they deserve to fail, and that they most likely will. And the country, as usual, will be worse off for it.

Nobody likes sour juice.