Since President Duterte has brought with him a tough drive against illegal drugs and criminality in general, I was wondering how he would fare in sports. If the sports world were a country on its own with its share of the “bad guys,” what would Duterte do? We scoured through sports pages (past and present), looked back at previous controversies, and came up with the following interesting “candidates” that could draw the ire of Digong the sports leader. What should be taken out from sports? What or who are the rotten eggs of sports? Here are some, not in any specific order.
Since illegal drugs are very much in the news, let’s admit that some sports personalities are also into illegal drugs. They may not be pushers or big fishes, but there are some users among athletes, coaches and sports officials. All of them should be Duterte’d away from sports. When big rumbles occur, I can still remember how a school’s top-ranking sports official commented that all those involved should undergo drug tests (including the coaches). The same applies for athletes who are using PEDs or performance enhancing drugs. While PEDs may not yet be that prevalent today, you never know. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a few out there on PEDs. We don’t have a WADA or PEDs monitoring system in place, do we? Ipa Duterte na sila!
Next up are “age limit” cheaters. Just when we thought all was smooth and schools were no longer fielding over-aged players, the CESAFI was hit by age-cheating cases involving two schools in 2015. They fielded players pretending to be 17 years old, when in fact some were already 19 and even more than 20 years old! While the players were suspended for life from the CESAFI, how I wish the real guilty persons were also punished. We also had a case of age-cheating in football last season. The irony of it all is that the players were just mere victims here. I firmly believe that there are other, more influential people who master-minded the cheating and still got away with it. And they’re still out there alive and kicking, very much active in sports. Funny but when we bumped into them when this happened, they couldn’t look at us straight in our eyes and found ways to blame others. Ipa Duterte na sila!
We then have the over-abusive coaches and parents of our young kids. We have coaches who treat young athletes as if they were slaves. Gone are the days when corporal punishment was tolerated, but we now live in different times. We also have parents who over-push their children even if their kids aren’t interested in sports or aren’t that athletically gifted. Kaluoy gyud sa bata. You’ll also see parents coaching their own kids from the sidelines despite the presence of a designated coach. I feel really sad when I see a player always looking over to his/her father (or mother) in the middle of a game while his/her coach also yells out instructions. My advice to parents? Just let them have fun and enjoy the game (win or lose). Instead of leading by example, some coaches and parents lead in taunting, berating and instigating fights with opponents. Ipa Duterte na sila!
The next batch of candidates is incompetent tournament officials. Due to their incompetence, more controversies and questions arise instead of a definite outcome or result. The end-result of a tournament is always in question with everyone shaking their heads when it’s over. The usual symptoms of a poorly managed tournament is when a tournament is suddenly stopped with everyone left hanging or when ground rules aren’t implemented. We also have sad situations when tournament referees don’t know the rules of the game and end up making the wrong calls or decisions. Ipa Duterte na sila!
And how about those incompetent and corrupt sports officials? We have many of them from lowest to the highest levels, don’t we? We have some in government service and others in national sports associations and tournament management organizations. We always ask why we can’t excel at the international level? Well some of the answers can be found here. Some are there for their own glory. Some are there for the money and not the good of the sport. Ipa Duterte na sila!
President Duterte himself has appointed a new set of leaders who will lead Philippine sports. The new Chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission is the come-backing William “Butch” Ramirez. Duterte also appointed PBA legend Ramon “El Presidente” Fernandez as PSC Commissioner. We also have a new Games and Amusements Board Chairman in Abraham Khalil Aldeguer Mitra. So far, it’s looking good but it’s not the start that matters. The discriminating Pinoy fan is looking for results. Let’s pray that they lead Pinoy sports into the next level.
With a new leadership in place and “change is coming,” here’s wishing all the best for Pinoy sports. We hope that all those who ruin Pinoy sports be kicked out of the scene and replaced with people with true and genuine hearts for sports.