I have no quarrel with sending this big group of Pinoy athletes to the KL SEA Games.
After all, this is the least competitive of all regional sports conclaves. Whether they win medals or not, many of them will have their first taste of international contests, thus enhancing their personal experience.
What I strongly detest is when even the wives and nannies (Yes, the yayas) of many sports officials will come as free-loaders using taxpayers’ money. They will be cloaked as chaperons kuno but only to serve the personal needs of NSA officials.
These freeloaders are wasting government resources. They will also enjoy stipends because they ‘form” part of the official delegation. Wow, how lucky can they get!
Since the PSC saw life in 1990 via RA 6847, the abuses of NSA officials in collusion with corrupt PSC people have not abated. Billions of taxpayers’ money have gone to waste because of the parasitic attitude of shrewd personalities masquerading as genuine sports leaders. (Ask Bingoy Montemayor. He knows.)
POC chief Peping Cojuangco, in his 16 years at the helm, does not seem to know what direction Filipino athletes are taking. Under his leadership, the Philippines produced just a lone Olympic medal, courtesy of Hidilyn Diaz who copped a silver medal in weightlifting in the 2016 Rio Olympics. He has been able to suppress, using political tactics, democratic dissent such that constructive change within has been stifled.
There is a GREAT, FELT NEED for change in the POC leadership.
For the record, the POC and the PSC are not seeing eye to eye.
The former has remained completely dependent on government subsidy, insisting the latter is mandated to support their existence and their needs. This mendicant attitude allowed scheming proteges to get plum positions in the NSAs who earn their keeps by making a business out of sports.
The PSC wants a more judicious spending of government funds by requiring the POC and its member-NSAs to be accountable by liquidating the millions they received from the government sports agency.
Which is what good governance must be. PSC chair Butch Ramirez should unceasingly use the hammer to pounce on hardheaded NSA presidents who have mishandled PSC money and are now unable to liquidate millions.
Just one thought: If these wasted, unliquidated taxpayers’ money had been used for housing instead (or for the free education of poor students as provided for in the recent law signed by PRRD), wouldn’t it have served a far better purpose?
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, our country is rich but pretends to be poor.
Again, if those millions were used to rehabilitate the young traumatized Marawi kids by way of sports programs, these funds would have served a better purpose, don’t you agree?
RA 6847 should be amended.
This is a good time as any to rectify the latent inadequacies and inequities of the PSC statute that is tilted in favor of the NSAs and the POC.
Spreading the gospel of sports in the grassroots is the principal mandate of the PSC. This meant the inclusion of out of school youths.
However, in the present scheme of things, principal emphasis has favored only the in-school sector as students are exclusively able to take part in the nationwide Palarong Pambansa.
The SEAG has become a pure junket.
During competitions, I see wives of NSA officials accompanied by their yayas go on shopping sprees. Some come home with a big number of balikbayan boxes containing dutiable goods but are never levied tariffs because they are part of the national contingent.
Smart-alecks in Philippine delegations exploit sports and turn it into a business endeavor. Get rid of these leeches. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) John 14:1: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
