WANT to hear from someone who honestly cares for Philippine sports?
“Good morning. I am very happy that Mr. Butch Ramirez was chosen to be the Chair of the PSC. He has many commendable plans in his move to establish a national sports academy. I join everybody in wishing him success in his noble endeavor.”
That’s Ramon Avena, son of Far Eastern Championship Games (also known as Far East Games) great Vicente Avena, the basketball and volleyball great who led many victorious campaigns by the Philippines in the pre-war regional sports competition.
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Avena continues to rue the fact that many national athletes, who sacrificed and did the Philippines proud in the Far East Games, have not been given due recognition.
But he’s now quite thankful that Philippine sports is in the threshold of receiving the competent full-hearted care and attention it had missed these past many years.
For the record, the Philippines figured in its poorest performance in the Southeast Asian Games under the outgoing Aquino administration.
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The outgoing Chair of the Philippine Sports Commission, Richie Garcia, has taken pride in being able to save a hefty sum for his successor in the PSC.
It should be noted though that, just like President Aquino who continues to breast-beat over the great financial gains achieved during his reign, Garcia is leaving a national sports community that badly needs a healing.
Yes, just like our beloved country that now has to be saved from monumental corruption rampant criminality and the deathly drug menace, Philippine sports needs a total makeover.
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Well, like it or not, wrongs abounding in the Philippines should be corrected by what had been grimly advertised in Church last Sunday as the “culture of death.”
In the case of Philippine sports itself, the healing should come with the establishment of the national sports academy which, the way it was proposed, would deal not only with national athletes, rather mainly with the youth, the poor children in the grassroots that all deserve the wholesome right to play and participate.
To lead a healthy, drug-free, productive life, regardless of tribe, religion, state of life and creed, as incoming President Rodrigo Duterte wanted it.