Give it to William “Butch” Ramirez. Just when things appeared to be settling down for Philippine sports with a new management ramrodding the team at the Philippine Sports Commission, Ramirez virtually dropped a bomb with his order giving the country’s 57 national sports associations a 30-day period to liquidate their outstanding balances from the PSC or face sanctions.
In a press conference last week in Manila, Ramirez said the 57 NSAs have had a total outstanding balance of P98,736,165 in the form of financial assistance. They were given up to March 16 to settle their obligations.
He also ordered PSC executive director Carlo Abarquez to write the NSAs to demand explanation (why they failed to settle their obligations) and to liquidate their balances.
This came with a stern warning that the PSC would not hesitate to suspend those who would fail to comply with his order. He added, however, that the PSC would still continue providing financial assistance to athletes, coaches and sports organizations with ‘good standing records.’
Ramirez’ order must have come with the impact of an Intensity 7 tremor to some NSAs who did not realize it would come if all. Used to having their ways for decades, it probably did not strike them that the PSC would spring to life Phoenix-like from the doldrums to assume a new resolve and direction.
For truth to tell, some NSAs have taken the path that some Manila-based national organizations have evolved into: virtual mafias or corporations run by families or cluster of cohorts clothed with articles of incorporations.
This is the reason why Philippine sports in general has stagnated and by extension, why the PSC has wallowed in ’29 years of failure’ since it was created by virtue of Republic Act 6847 in 1990.
Evident was the lack of a mass-based program or direction in most of these NSAs. With some exemptions, their activities are centered, directed or decided (some say cooked) mostly in Manila. Consequently, this explains the limited participation of the regions if at all and why at times athletes old enough to be grandmothers and granddaddies often don the national colors in international competitions.
Why, one 42-year old ‘Filipino’ of still hazy origin continues to play for the Manila-orchestrated Philippine team like there is a dearth of talents in this basketball-crazy archipelago!
It also explains why instead of doing their recruitment in the region to replenish their talents, some NSAs simply resort to hiring Fil-Americans who cannot, truth to tell, barely make it to the top collegiate competitions in the United States.
This nation mind you is rooting for Ramirez to go the whole hog in cleansing Philippine sports and in transforming it into something that helps sustain, unify, and strengthen our character as a people and as nation. It is quite a tall order but Ramirez arguably is the right guy for the job.
***
Had one national sports association played its cards right, Wesley So, the world’s No. 2 chess player who comes from Cavite could have continually done honors for the Philippines with his brilliant showing in chess.
But a falling out with the Philippine Chess Federation made So decide to play for good for the United States. Since then, the 24-year old So has graduated from strength to strength and is now ranked just behind world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the chess ratings.
His most recent victory was the 2017 Tata Steel Chess Tournament in the Netherlands where he upstaged a formidable field led by Carlsen himself. It was his career best considering that the tournament, dubbed the ‘Wimbledon of Chess’ featured at least five or six of the world’s chess elite.
The update is that Carlsen and So, would be playing in the 2017 grand chess tour, so called because it involved three events–the 2017 Singuefield Cup in July 31-August 12, the St. Louis Rapid (August 13-17) the 2017 London Classic (Nov. 29-Dec. 12).
It is a formidable field with the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Viswanathan Anand, and Levon Aronian participating. Anybody in the list can be champion.
Here is one game culled from the 8th London Chess Classic last December which So won undefeated:
J Gallagher – R Mitra
French Defence
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.c3 Be7 8.Bd3 0–0 9.Ne5 c5 10.Be3 Qc7 11.Qe2 Nd5 12.0–0 Nxe3 13.fxe3 b614.Bxh7+ Kxh7 15.Qh5+ Kg8 16.Rxf7 Rxf7 17.Qxf7+ Kh7 18.Rf1 Bd8 19.Qg6+ Kg8 20.Qe8+ Kh7 21.Rf8 1–0
