A P1-B promise by Uy

At the launch of the Philippine Sports Institute (PSI) a couple of weeks ago, presidential adviser on sports Dennis Uy made a bold promise.

Uy, president and CEO of Phoenix Petroleum Corporation and owner of the Phoenix team in the PBA, said he will help raise P1 billion for Filipino athletes and help the PSC with grassroots development in the country.

Uy said he will appeal to the private sector when he meets them in the coming months.

He will ask his fellow businessmen to shell out ample amount of funds that will support the sports programs of the government, particularly of the PSI.

According to Uy, he would like to follow Thailand’s sports programs, which allotted between 10 to 20 billion baht (P14.2 to P28.4 billion) for coaches, athletes and training facilities.

The PSC relies on Pagcor, appropriations from the national government and private sector to fund our athletes’ training and grassroots development.

However, the funds are not enough and Uy must seek help from businessmen who love sports and are willing to support the country’s sports development programs the way Danding Conjuangco and Manny V. Pangilinan do.

The country’s build-up to host the Southeast Asian Games in 2019 has already started and the budget Uy promised would be a big push for the country.

The last time the Philippines topped the biennial meet was when it was held in our home soil in 2005. Since then our performance had been on a skid.

In 2007 the Philippines was sixth in Thailand; fifth in Laos in 2009; sixth in Indonesia in 2011; seventh in Burma (Myanmar) in 2013; and sixth in Singapore in 2015.

Experts say the downtrend cannot be blamed solely on budget constraints but also on National Sports Associations’ internal problems, which the POC failed to resolve.

To many Filipinos, the seventh-place finish in Burma was shocking.

But our sports officials were quick to defend our dismal performance in the 27th edition of the biennial meet in Naypyidaw.

According to them, it’s because of the inclusion of the host country of indigenous martial arts sports such as vovinam and kenpo.

But the Filipino people would not buy the alibi and instead called on the resignation of our top sports officials.