The Commission on Higher Education is actively building systems and alliances to increase the availability of sports to tertiary-level students. This is because, for the first time, the government agency is headed by a career public servant who is also a devout sportsman.
“I’ve been in sports since I was young. Until now, I still go up to Baguio by bike, going through Kennon Road. I’ve had a very healthy lifestyle,”CHED chairman Prospero de Vera says. “My daughter was a Palarong Pambansa champion in rhythmic gymnastics. So I’m also a sports parent.”
Athletes like his daughter retire prematurely because they can’t find a pathway to develop themselves further in sports. When he joined CHED, De Vera saw that it was even worse. Organized sports for students beyond the Palarong Pambansa did not exist.
“The different universities have their own leagues: UAAP, NCAA, SCUAA for state universities, PRISAA for private. They are both national and regional,” the former University of the Philippines professor explains. “But the leagues don’t have the same set of sports. For SCUAA, the sports activities differ across regions. And so, a budding athlete from the Palaro is left on their own to develop.”
Before starting any programs, though, De Vera had to make a cultural shift within the commission first. He introduced the habit of consulting experts prior to formulating any plans.
“That’s what makes our job so easy here at the commission,” reveals veteran dance sport internationalist Ana Yango, who is in charge of implementing plans for the new sports section at CHED. “We are able to get all the data we need from the people who know it. It cuts down on time, effort and mistakes.”
Meanwhile, Congress had already passed a measure to require higher education institutions to report on the sports activities that they have, the expenses that they have. In this way, legislators can make sense of the funding for sports for state colleges and universities. In the past, they didn’t even know what the universities were doing, because there was no reporting system.
“Once you have the data, you can determine, for example, universities which are spending the money well, universities that don’t know where to spend the money, and so on,” the CHED chairman elaborates. “So now, allocations can be well-targeted. At the maximum, it will allow the development of specialized programs for sports development.”
Among the CHED plans already in the pipeline are the newly-completed Tertiary School Sports Development Framework Manual: a community sports and wellness program, sports tourism projects, a National Tertiary Sports Summit this year, online virtual sports training for taekwondo, basketball, karatedo and dancesports for starters. Also planned for 2021 is a CHED sports channel accessible to colleges and universities.
In the long run, this will also minimize the poaching of athletes in the provinces by equalizing the expertise available to learning institutions. This will also bring parity to collegiate and amateur sports.