The presidency of the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines is just one of many sports tasks Deputy Speaker Robbie Puno will be handling.
He is also the vice chair of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas and one of the federations troubleshooters behind the scenes.
Immediately after his appointment as boxing chief, he met with the national team camped out in Baguio City. Almost instantly, he noticed something.
“The first thing that jumped out of me was how different both federations are,” Puno told the Inquirer on Tuesday. “The difference is startling.”
“In basketball, money is not a problem. There’s so many willing to fund because it is the most popular sport in the country,” he added. “Even among the players, the money is either very good or OK.”
In boxing, Puno said, “part of your objective now is to help the boxers lift not just their lives, but the lives of their family.”
That’s why, even as he is focusing on the country’s participation in the China Asian Games, where the boxing event doubles as an Olympic qualifier, the lawmaker who represents Antipolo City’s first district in Congress also has in his sights boxing’s overseas crisis.
“We all are aware of the things that are happening with the international federation and our first concern is the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics because that affects our boxers directly,” Puno said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had already announced that it was scrapping boxing from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The IOC, a source told the Inquirer in an earlier report, kept the sport in the Paris calendar in 2024 “in deference to the boxers [who are already] preparing for it.”
The International Boxing Association has been under fire from the IOC because, the Olympic body said in a letter to the beleaguered federation, of “… concerns remaining in the key areas of governance, financial sustainability and the proven integrity of the refereeing and judging systems.”