It would be an honor to host the 2019 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines but it would be dishonorable not to take care of domestic problems first.
The decision of the Philippine Sports Commission not to host the SEA Games and channel some of its resources in helping rebuild Marawi is one honorable thing to do.
You see, this corner has advocated even to skip participation to international tournaments using government funds in order to focus in building a comprehensive sports program at home. Hey, resources are scarce, why not maximize its use?
The only exemption if the PH Teams go abroad is to use the help of corporate sponsors. That’s it. We’ve done it before and it can be done again.
It’s plain and simple. When you treat the PSC like your own home, you closely look at the budget for the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly expenses. Competing abroad? I am not against it in the first place because we need it to expose our national athletes to a higher level of competition.
But doing that in these trying times when our countrymen and women are facing all difficulties in life, specially the children in Mindanao who need an “escape” from conflicts of war, you would never go outside of your country, instead, you look after your fellow human beings.
Just treat the PSC like your home. Would you go for a vacation when you see that there are more important and pressing concerns to be attended to? Oh, come on, have you not realized that going abroad is like a vacation? And have you not noticed, our national sports officials like to stick to their positions because of the perks that come with it, specially travel abroad for free, thanks to public funds?
I would not mind if you spend your own money, just like the sports officials, many, many moons ago have done. Now? Ambot lang ug mo gastos sarili nilang kwarta. But if you can find a corporate sponsor, say, Phoenix Petroleum that will fund the trip of the team abroad, that would be great but using taxpayer’s money at this time? Hmmmm, dutlan kag konsensiya?
Just think of the children affected by the conflicts in Marawi.
Sports for Peace Mindanao worker Prof. Henry C. Daut with the help of the PSC and other volunteers have been working day in and day out to give our children in Marawi a break by holding a sports therapy event for them.
These are troubled times my friends. Can you sleep well in your hotel room knowing that our children in Mindanao and other evacuees are sleeping in temporary shelters?
Let us never waste our scarce resources.
Then, when the time comes, you can tell yourself that you indeed have served the interests of the people by never, never availing of the “promo” as sports officials.
Just do the honorable thing in these challenging times.
