Swim or ‘sink’ for Filipino tankers–Joseph

MANILA, Philippines — Swimmer would rather get out of the national pool and forfeit their allowances from the Philippine Sports Commission than sacrifice educational scholarships offered them by schools overseas.

Filipino swimmers are now forced to take this choice to the detriment of the country’s performance in competitions such as the Southeast Asian Games, according to swimming chief Mark Joseph.

The Philippine Aquatic Sports Association (Pasa) head said swimmers shy away from their priority program because that means they would be forced to leave school in exchange for the allowances offered by the PSC.

“They don’t want to sacrifice their education to receive their allowances,” Joseph told the Inquirer. “This, primarily, is the reason our athletes refused to accept PSC funding.”

PSC chair Richie Garcia recently announced that the medal-rich sports of swimming and weightlifting will soon lose their status as priority sports both for lack of a grassroots program and non-performance in the SEA Games.

Athletes in the priority list get as much as P40,000 a month in allowances on condition that they do nothing but train in their respective sports.

According to Garcia, the annual budget of Pasa would be slashed from P20 million to P10 million after it was removed from the 10-sport priority list that includes boxing, taekwondo, athletics, wushu, archery, wrestling, bowling and billiards.

But Joseph claimed their association has never received such amount since the program took off in 2012.

“Getting P10 million from the PSC would be perfect,” he said. “In the past, they never approved enough money for grassroots, even if we asked.”

Garcia said that due to the lack of a grassroots program, swimming managed only four bronze medals in last year’s Burma (Myanmar) SEA Games.