Politicians talk sports on occasion

Next year being an election year, politicians are now far too busy polishing their images among voters.

They are also hard at work identifying prospective backers, financial or otherwise, to their upcoming campaigns to have much leftover for the sports needs of their constituents.

For the very few politicians touted as the most vocal voices for sports in the august halls, showing up in the media room on occasion to talk turkey with scribes is a sensible thing to do.

But it takes an immense skill to inject new worry and angst to an issue as old as time: How to end the country’s medal drought in the Olympics.

Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero is no pipsqueak of a legislator. A lawyer, he is among the still-undeclared vice presidentiables for next year’s national elections.

He could be posturing or pandering to millions of sports fans, but Escudero has at least paused to call on the Philippine Sports Commission to make more cash available to deserving national sports associations (NSAs).

The urgent goal is to spend and qualify more Filipino athletes to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics because with less than a year to go, a grand total of one athlete— trackster Eric Cray—has punched a ticket to the Summer Games.

NSAs are struggling and it looks like they’d be hard pressed matching or surpassing the delegation of 11 athletes— we sent to the 2012 London Olympics.

Even our top boxers—traditionally the strongest hopes for an Olympic medal, including the elusive gold—still have to qualify for Rio de Janeiro.

Two of them, light flyweight Roger Ladon and welterweight Eumir Felix Marcial will have to win at the World Championships in Qatar next month to qualify.

A third boxer, lightweight Charly Suarez, has to be in the top two of his weight class in the Aiba Pro Boxing league or emerge victorious in the Asian-Oceanian tournament to make it to the Olympics.

Escudero certainly follows local sports history. He is batting for more athletes in Brazil because it’s been 18 years since we have earned a medal at the Olympics.

That was the silver won by boxer Mansueto Velasco in Atlanta in 1996, the same year Escudero, then 27, received his Masters degree in comparative and international law from Georgetown University.

As a senator and potential campaigner for a higher office, Escudero reports nothing new in terms of more funding for sports.

He once conceded that every administration has bigger fish to fry, including a catch called economy, and has neglected sports in terms of financial backing.

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No more monthly dues. No more green fees, either. A one-time membership fee with two player privileges is now available at Clark Sun Valley Golf and Country Club.

Located within the Clark Freeport in Pampanga, the new $400 million (P18.2 billion) venture is owned by Donggwang Clark Corp., the Philippine subsidiary of the Sun Valley Group of South Korea. It offers two challenging 18-hole courses nestled atop rolling hills with available “staycation” apartments and facilities.

Drumbeaters say the “world class” project will change the country’s sports tourism landscape and “redefine the country’s leisure business.”