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By Bong Pedralvez, Sports Subeditor
First of two parts
THE room measures 6-by-10-by-7 square feet. The
tiles on the floor are well worn; the paint on the walls is peeling
and, despite the air conditioning, a musty smell pervades the room.
The water seeps in through the cracks when it rains, cascading like
a waterfall. Close to 10 people live and sleep here. This is one of
the better rooms.
Welcome to one of the living quarters of the
athletes in the national pool at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
Most of them are the very same athletes that the country expects
will excel in the 23rd Southeast Asian Games in November.
Of the close to 700 athletes in the national
pool, 289 are quartered at the Rizal Complex, according to the
Philippine Sports Commission, which administers the sports complex.
Most of them are housed at the North and South Towers of the Rizal
Memorial Track and Football Stadium. Others—like the athletes from
judo, dragon boat racing, sepak takraw and pencak silat—are farmed
out to the dorms around the rim of the Rizal Memorial track oval,
where most rooms could be described as close to squatter conditions.
The remaining athletes are housed either at the Philsports Complex
(formerly known as the Ultra) in Pasig City or at the Teachers Camp
in Baguio City.
“The rooms are really terrible, but this is
what the PSC has given us. They leave much to be desired. We can
only hope the conditions will improve,” the judo association
chief, Capt. Rey Jaylo, said. “They lack proper ventilation, and
sometimes our athletes are crammed in a small area.”
This is where the judoka Helen Dawa stays. Her
room is one of those within the sports complex and is just a few
steps from the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.
Dawa, a gold medalist in the 2003 Vietnam
Southeast Asian Games, lives in the small quarters with seven other
women national team members. Despite the double-decked beds inside,
one can cover the length of the low-ceilinged room in a few steps.
“We have an air conditioner but doesn’t
fully work most of the time. It is still hot, especially in
summer,” said the petite Baguio City native. “[The air
conditioner] breaks down often.”
While it is bad during the summer months, things
turn worse during the rainy season, Dawa said.
“The water seeps through the cracks in the
wall. It’s like a waterfall at times, and the room gets
flooded,” added Dawa, who joined the national team three years
ago. Left unsaid was the condition of her room: its walls need a new
coat of paint and the floor tiles have seen better days.
Aging complex
A former outstanding national athlete recently
hired by the PSC said the “situation has gone from bad to
worse.”
“I lived in this complex but it was not so bad
then,” said the former athlete, who declined to be identified.
In fairness, the facilities at the aging sports
complex built in the early twenties were not meant to house so huge
a number of athletes. Michael Keon, who is now the PSC’s national
training director, said that during his time not as many athletes as
now were quartered at the sports complex.
“Most of them stayed in Baguio. We also had at
most 200 athletes then. How many do you now have? Close to 800,
including those in the developmental pool,” said Keon, once
regarded as the country’s sports supreme, being executive director
of Project: Gintong Alay.
That some of these athletes live under miserable
conditions is acknowledged by PSC officer in charge William Ramirez.
“We are aware of the problem and making it one
of our major priorities. We don’t hide that the issue is real,”
said Ramirez, who was appointed in January.
“Our aim is to move them all out of the Rizal
Memorial. First, however, we must find where we will get the
money,” added Ramirez, who is trying to pay off P150 million worth
of debts left by his predecessor, Eric Buhain, current chair of the
Games and Amusements Board.
Ultimately, Ramirez said, all of the athletes
now living at the Rizal Memorial will be moved out either to the
Philsports complex in Pasig City or to the Teachers Camp in Baguio.
The exodus, in fact, has begun, with around 50 members of the
national track and field team having left for Baguio more than a
month ago.
“With the exception perhaps of wushu and tae
kwon do, all of the other athletes and coaches at the Rizal Memorial
will be transferred,” Ramirez said. “For those who will be taken
to Philsports, we will hire buses to ferry those athletes from their
new quarters should they be required to train here [at the Rizal
Memorial].”
Ramirez had to decline an offer by the
International School in Makati to become an alternate dorm and
training facility because it would not meet the athletes’
requirements. The option was arranged by Executive Secretary Eduardo
Ermita.
“We are thankful for the offer of the
International School and to Secretary Ermita for making the
arrangements. But our national athletes need something more than
what they can provide,” Ramirez said.
To be continued
Part 2 |
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