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By Rene Q. Bas, Editor In Chief
(Editor’s note: Part one discussed that the
absence of a sustainable sports development program and poor
management of the sports bodies as the reasons for the
Philippines’ poor showing in international competitions. To solve
the problem, former President Fidel Ramos suggested that the first
step is to revive his mass-based “Sports for All” program that
would develop enthusiasm for sports, as well as develop athletic
skills in schools and communities all over the country.)
Last of two parts
Former President Fidel Ramos directed the
Philippine Sports Commission to refine the strategic blueprint for
the “Sports for All” program. The Philippine Sports Commission
chairman was then Philip Juico.
Sports for All
Ramos named the following as essential
components of the program:
1. The Physical Fitness and Sports Development
Councils. These would be in operation at the national, regional,
provincial, city or municipal and barangay levels. On March 1, 1993,
Ramos signed Executive Order 63 establishing the councils.
2. The Philippine National Games. It was
inaugurated in 1994 as the country’s flagship sports program
reaching out to the grassroots. The national was designed to be
community-based. It provided the annual competitive venue for newly
discovered local talents who had not participated in the regular
tournaments under the then Department of Education, Culture and
Sports (DECS) or under the commercial leagues. This is now being
carried out as the Palarong Pambansa.
3. The National Youth Sports Talent Reserves.
This was launched in 1997 to assemble promising sports talents and
train them together to become competitive national, and possibly
international, athletes. Later, some of them could become qualified
and expert sports managers, coaches, trainers, referees, organizers
and entrepreneurs—having gone through the academic and laboratory
courses of the Philippine Sports Institute.
4. The military and national police
“Olympics.” Talents were recruited under the umbrella of the
uniformed services that readily provided well-budgeted training,
fitness and motivation programs. Olympic medallists Leopoldo
Serrantes, Leopoldo Cantancio and Mansueto Velasco Jr. were either
from the military or the police.
5. Philippine National Institute of Sports. This
was to be the college-level and post-graduate institution for
upgrading competence of sports officials, managers, administrators,
coaches, umpires, referees, judges, trainers, and elite athletes.
Instructors would include visitors from international sports bodies
and top teams.
6. Private-public sector partnership through the
Pinoy Sports Clubs. These would embrace barkadas (or other forms of
social groups) at the grassroots or neighborhood level. They would
be aided to organize themselves into sports teams and doers of
fitness and athletic activities. Overseas Filipino workers and other
Filipinos overseas would be tapped for support.
7. Private-Public Partnership Program for Sports
For All was launched in 1996 to institutionalize the private
sector’s financial, logistical and technical support for sports.
The heads of 27 of the largest corporations and scores of other
business and industrial companies have their commitment and support
to the “Sports for All” policy and in particular the program.
Vision presented
Ramos told The Manila Times that, as Philip
Juico writes in his book Sports and Governance, “For the first
time in the history of Philippine sports, we produced a visionary
road map for Philippine sports in the medium term [1998 to 2004]
which is part of the updated six-year national development plan
turned over by the Ramos Administration to the Estrada
Administration.”
“The key component of that program,” the
former president added, “was the Partnership Program for Sports
For All [PPSA]. PPSA mobilized financial and in-kind resources that
allowed activities including road shows in the US prior to the 1996
Atlanta Olympics.”
Looking back, Ramos sees that the Partnership
Program for Sports For All program turned out to be the crucial
element in the entire spectrum of Philippine sports and fitness
development. There must be greater efforts to elicit the commitment
of various funding and in-kind private-sector sources.
Smartly prioritize
Ramos also spoke of effective coordination and
management—not only of the Partnership Program for Sports For All
program, but of all the segments of Philippine sports. The goal is
“smarter prioritization and allocation of resources.”
He explained, “The sports sectors most likely
to win medals for Filipinos in the Olympics should be given top
priority. Those events requiring agility, muscle coordination,
endurance, skills, and mental toughness—not height or
bulk—should be given priority funding support more than others.
These are boxing, badminton, tae kwon do, weightlifting, diving,
gymnastics, martial arts and road running.”
The former president said, “To develop the
love of sports and inculcate the value of physical fitness among
young Filipinos towards their better quality of life, the LGUs
[local government units] were mandated to establish a ‘level
playing field’ in our larger barangay [villages]. This would be a
well-drained, grass-covered, level area of about 6,000 square meters
[less than a hectare] where local residents could engage in sports
and improve their physical fitness thru jogging/running/playing.
Without building expensive stadiums, grandstands or gyms, such a
community-level venue would be for people, regardless of age or
skill, to indulge in sports and games for one or two hours before
sunrise or before sundown.”
“A grassy plain, where football, volleyball,
basketball, softball, tug-of-war, weightlifting, gymnastic
exercises, martial arts, jumping, and running events could be played
is exactly what was available during my grade school years in
Barangay Maniboc, Lingayen, Pangasinan, where I grew up in the
1930s,” Ramos said.
“Now 70 years later, such inexpensive level
playing fields could surely be replicated in 5,000 other places in
the Philippines where money invested would harvest better returns or
dividends in terms of health, fitness, skills and teamwork compared
to projects like fancy waiting sheds, reinforced concrete school
fences and other pork-barrel projects,” he added.
The Times and Ramos have the same thinking about
basketball.
He said, “Instead of pouring most of the funds
to basketball—even if it is the Filipinos’ favorite
sport—funds must be apportioned more smartly to the sports in
which Filipino athletes are more likely to win Olympic medals.”
Gold for blame game
Ramos told The Times that after every
international sports disaster for Team Philippines, the same
criticism and faultfinding that we are witnessing now after the
Beijing Olympics also happened.
He pointed to “discontinuity, decline in per
athlete/per team allocations and, tragically, deterioration in the
leadership of sports bodies and unity of Team Philippines” as the
reasons why “Filipino athletic performance has not been built-up
over the years.”
He noted that former Foreign Affairs Secretary
Roberto Romulo, now a banker, wrote recently: “Private leadership
in sports, as desired by the Olympic charter, has been fractured by
political intramurals, to the dismay and neglect of athletes.
Government support for sports has been weak and unfocused. And
private-sector support has been meager, showering only its resources
on proven events and athletes.”
Ramos said, “In sports, it is our elected
officials, more than private or sectoral leaders, who must exercise
hands-on leadership. There are enough talents and potentials out
there among our young Filipinos. But, continuity and focus are
missing. Our sights today must be targeted not just on 2012, but
also on 2016 and 2020. Then, improved overall national health,
fitness, endurance and medals will be the bonus.”
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