Yeng at heart: Guiao opens up on Gilas, Congress

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Spending an hour with national coach Yeng Guiao is like talking to a human flowchart. He looks at options like they were defensive schemes thrown at him by an opposing team.

Is Kai Sotto leaving the country for a European team? “If he is, we really have nothing we can do about it,” he said. If not? “We have to give him an option, an environment, that will give him the best opportunities here.”

If he fails in a congressional bid, he pours his focus on NLEX in the PBA and Gilas Pilipinas in the Fiba World Cup qualifying windows. If he wins? “There are a lot of advocacies I started that have gained momentum already and I don’t want that momentum to lose steam.”

And with a buffet table of PBA stars and naturalized players at his disposal, the options are dizzying.

“It’s a good problem,” said Guiao during a guesting at Sports IQ, the Inquirer’s live multimedia sports talk show.

“I was surprised,” Guiao said of the number of players released by their PBA teams and who showed up for the first practice of the national squad for the Asian Games. “Even the injured players came. For me, I know now that it’s not true that players would hold back [from the national team] or that they’re looking out for their big contracts. It’s unfair to the players to say that.”

He even has a smorgasbord of naturalized players to select from: Andray Blatche, Christian Standhardinger, Stanley Pringle and even Marcus Douthit, “if we really wanted to, he can suit up.”

“And then we have Justin Brownlee pending in the Congress. Of course, there’s also [NBA standout] Jordan Clarkson.”

Now, Guiao’s problem is trimming that glut of talent to 12. But it’s a problem that he’s willing to deal with every day and one that will take a backseat once he tackles his bid to return to Congress.

“I feel like there’s so much unfinished business that I want to continue,” said Guiao.

He plans to build on the growth of Clark’s international airport and make it even more accessible to the public (a railway line is expected to be extended northward with a stop near the airport). He also hopes he can turn Clark into a major sports hub so it could be “utilized as out national training center.”

Philippines head coach Yeng Guiao. Photo from Fiba.com

And he wants Clark ready for a huge goal of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine Olympic Committee. “There’s already a plan to bid for the 2030 Asian Games. I witnessed the Asian Games in Jakarta already. Tayo naman.”

More importantly, he plans to pursue a petition he filed at the Supreme Court that will compel the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) to remit the full cut of the Philippine Sports Commission’s share of its revenue pie. So far, Pagcor has been releasing only half of the PSC’s annual share of its revenues.

“If that full share is released, retroactively, I estimate the PSC will get around P12 to 13 billion,” Guiao said. “We won’t have any reason anymore not to win an Olympic gold.”

It’s quite the stretch to hope that the gold will come from basketball. But even with insurmountable odds facing Gilas Pilipinas, Guiao hopes to shepherd teams that will lay it all down for the country. And it’s not even about rewriting the identity of the squad.

“Laban. Puso,” Guiao said. “That’s always our battle cry. That identity should always stay with us. Our opponents may be bigger or better. We may lack preparation at times. We may not have all the players we want on a roster. But we should always play with the same heart and commitment.”