The Philippine Sports Commission unfairly came under fire middle of this week, due to a misunderstanding of its plan to help its employees and national athletes. Initially painted as a savior, the commission was attacked when the full details of the plan were explained. Ironically, the PSC was not really the source of the misunderstanding, and has since cleared things up.
After an online meeting of the PSC Board Tuesday, it was agreed that financial assistance would be given to those working under its umbrella. Its chief accountant Merlita Ibay was then tasked to tally available funds, savings and other possible sources of the cash needed to help those concerned initially for a period of two months or so, until other alternative financing was found. The amount discussed was between P5,000 to 10,000 per person. This is not in addition to their regular pay, but in lieu of it, as almost all of government agencies’ finances have been poured into medical and relief efforts. This is where the misunderstanding began, with the use of the term “Social Amelioration Program,” which was understood as a handout above and beyond existing allowances or fees.
First of all, after the controversial Southeast Asian Games, national teams are considered disbanded, as standard protocol. The PSC continued to support athletes who had already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, as well as those who were on the verge of doing so. This is a very small percentage of all the elite athletes in the pool. Also, the agency had turned its attention to the ASEAN Para Games, which were eventually pushed back to allow for better preparation, and to clarify where the balance of finds would come from, as PSC said that revenue from the SEA Games and its broadcast rights were supposed to be remitted back to it.
As for the rest, national sports associations (NSAs) were supposed to then form new line-ups in a build-up to the next major event. In this case, that was meant to be the Tokyo Olympics, which have since been postponed to July of 2021. Let’s recall that last year, the PSC spent over P 1.4 billion preparing athletes and coaches for Olympic qualifiers, other competitions and the SEA Games. Also, under instructions from the Office of the President (which the agency is directly under), the PSC disbursed an additional P522 million on top of the P6 billion allocated for the Games. After January, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) had trouble coming up with the five percent monthly allocation for PSC, or about P 120 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) also realigned government agencies’ budgets to help the national “Build, Build, Build” program.
Also, nobody is talking about the PSC’s sunk nine-figure preliminary cost of preparations for the ASEAN Para Games, which will likely no longer be held.
Think about it. PAGCOR, the PSC’s main source of funding (through the National Sports Development Fund Law), has seen the greatest depletion of its revenues in its history. Casinos and other gaming outlets (betting stations, cockfighting, horse racing, sports betting) are all down to zero. Hotel casino chains are veritable ghost towns. In a previous column, this writer even elaborated how Las Vegas, Nevada, the gaming capital of the world, is at a standstill. Three days ago, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman reiterated on a television interview her insistence to reopen not just her city, but all of the state, going so far as to say that Las Vegas “isn’t China.” Given this fact alone, it would be very difficult to sustain any expenditure that was normal prior to the pandemic.
In addition to the national athletes on various teams and pools, the PSC has a lot of other people to take care of. There are coaches, trainers, medical personnel attached to national teams. There are its full-time employees who are all civil servants and protected by law. The commission also has casual employees, contractual personnel, consultants, job order people, and its own frontliners (security guards, janitors) to take care of. All that’s over 350 people, and over a thousand athletes and support staff. And prior to this week’s circular regarding the national government’s cost-cutting measures, Malacañang had already instructed all agencies to return any and all surpluses and savings to the National Treasury to pad government’s relief efforts. The only question is which agencies have not yet complied and therefore have cash on hand.
So funds for renovation of government sports venues – including the construction of a new 30-story athletes’ dormitory at the PhilSports Complex – are on hold. There can also be no more non-essential travel, purchase of vehicles and equipment, and so on. All celebrations and sports activities are cancelled until further notice. Given the state of things, October may be the earliest that we may have some semblance of sports activity. Sport is understandably the lowest priority right now. Fortunately, a handful of NSAs have already stepped forward to gallantly provide financial assistance for their athletes.
The PSC Board meeting slated for Friday was moved to April 30 to allow its accounting department to complete its computation and further refine the commission’s financial assistance plan. The agency is doing its best in spite of the situation, considering that sports is last among current priorities. Technically, they don’t have to because there’s no event to prepare for. But they will. Considering their track record, they deserve at least the benefit of the doubt.