How can Filipino athletes win in tournaments when they are being fed with cup noodles?
Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Jose Cojuangco raised this question during a hearing on Tuesday of the Senate committee on sports on several bills seeking the establishment of a national sports training center as well as the creation of the Department of Sports.
“Yung mga atleta natin binibigyan natin ng pera para pagkain nila. Kung minsan, ang kinakain ng mga atleta natin e cup noodle. Papaano mananalo yun kung cup noodle ang kinakain” Cojuangco told the committee chaired by boxing icon and Senator Manny Pacquiao.
(Our athletes are given food allowance. Sometimes, they eat cup noodles. How would they win if cup noodles is all they eat?)
The POC chief lamented that until now, the country has no sports facility that should take care of the needs of the athletes.
A simple sports facility, he said, would cost an estimated P3.5 billion.
“I really believe from the beginning, unless we house our athletes and see them every day and take care of them every day, we will not be able to get them to do what has to be done,” Cojuangco said.
READ: Senate vows more support for athletes
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William Ramirez also cited the lack of fund to put up sports facilities as one of the reasons why the country could not produce many good athletes.
Another reason, Ramirez said, was the absence of a “master plan” but said they were already crafting it so they could implement it by October.
“The very heart of the problem of the country’s sports is the love of country because if we love our country, we can unify, we can unite. That’s why the Philippine Sports Commission through its law… (is) mandated to lead the sports but every administration keeps on changing the board of commissioners so we don’t have a continuity of programs,” the PSC head said, responding to Pacquiao’s queries. CDG/rga