As a longtime sports journalist, I feel it is time for the Aquino government and the 15th Congress to address the diminishing budget of the Philippine Sports Commission.
Since 2002, Congress has drastically cut the allocation given to the PSC, raising quizzical eyebrows among sports aficionados.
“We don’t know how we can win the gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics with this poor treatment for sports?” they asked. This question is now confronting new PSC chair Richie Garcia, a two-time commissioner of the government’s sports agency.
Earlier, Philippine Olympic Committee president and former Tarlac congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco lamented the government’s cold treatment of local sports.
Said Cojuangco, President Aquino’s uncle: “It seems that we are the only the country whose government has no interest in sports. All the other countries have been trying their best to produce world-class athletes, but this is not the case in the Philippines.”
It is on record that past administrations have treated sports as a poor relation and therefore it did not enjoy adequate funding. Because of this, the government should help these impoverished sports associations whose coffers are often empty.
As I have repeatedly emphasized, Philippine sports will remain stagnant for as long as the government takes sports for granted. Local sports only gets the crumbs while the other government departments like defense, education, health, foreign affairs, justice, agriculture and environment and natural resources get huge budgetary allocations, not to mention special care and attention.
It is good that Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s has vowed to support efforts to get additional funding for the PSC. The solon from Bicol said the sports agency deserves all the money the government can give it, but he stressed the PSC should be accountable for every centavo that it would be spending to avoid another embarrassing Olympic shutout.
The Philippines has not won an Olympic medal in the last three stagings of the Olympic Games, to wit: in 2000 in Sydney, 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing. The country last won an Olympic medal—a silver—courtesy of boxer Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco at the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Games.
“We are aware of the needs of our athletes,” said Escudero. “I will support efforts to increase the PSC budget as long as the agency is able to convince us where the people’s money will be used and for what purpose.”
This perennial lack of funding is one compelling reason why Philippine sports continues to deteriorate. Even the basic needs of the athletes such as training equipment, decent living quarters, food and vitamins have often been neglected.
Throughout my long career as a journalist, I have always batted for government support for a developing country like ours. And, as far as I’m concerned, the monetary assistance given to the PSC is not even government intervention because sports development is the primary responsibility of the government.
That is why, in almost all countries, the government subsidizes sports, in our case, the PSC.
“Sports should be a national concern,” said a diehard fan. “With the support of the government, we can fully discover and develop the ability of potential Filipino athletes.”
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ODDS AND ENDS Do you know the reason why the United States is the envy of the sporting world? It’s because the US, which has no sports agency, is funded chiefly by private firms and individuals … World Pool 9-Ball champions Efren “Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante are not competing in the 2010 Guinness World Series Championships set July 28 to Aug. 1 in Jakarta because both are endorsers of San Miguel Beer, a competitor of Guinness, an Irish stout beer.