MIKE Keon, considered the supreme architect of the eminently successful Gintong Alay program, which saw the Philippines emerge from a mere ASEAN-level force to a powerful Southeast Asian Games competitor that reached new heights as a fiercely competitive Asian Games contender, lamented the disastrous plunge into the depths of mediocrity in the region and blames “just too much politics” for the decline.
He said the miserable showing of the country in the Southeast Asian Games, which is the lowest level of competition, where the Philippines dropped to No. 7 and 6 in the last two stagings of the games, showed that “we are at the bottom of the world’ and the consolation, if any, was that “we can only go up.”
It was Gintong Alay under Keon’s dynamic leadership that produced such sporting greats as Asia’s sprint queen Lydia de Vega, 400-meter sensation Isidro del Prado, the 4×400 “Bicol Express” Relay Team, steeplechaser Hector Begeo, swimmer Billy Wilson and a host of other fine athletes.
In a wide-ranging conversation over lunch with the sports editors of the major newspapers last Tuesday, Keon pushed the need to “create a Department of Sports that will try and develop a whole new system.”
Keon conceded that he had the support of his uncle, President Ferdinand Marcos, who was himself an ardent sportsman and an athlete.
The Gintong Alay achieved remarkable success with a budget of between P13 to P16 million in the 1980s.
“Gintong Alay showed what you can do if you really use your money judiciously, use it correctly,” said Keon, citing it can be done within a framework of accountability and transparency.
Keon emphasized that we need to recruit good coaches, who would make sure that our athletes train properly.
“The Filipino can be just as competitive as everyone else but our system is ‘palpak’ because there’s just too much politics,” said Keon, who recalled that when they created Gintong Alay, “it was a whole new organization from the ground up.”
He believes the stakeholders in sports need to sit down and work it all out. “Everyone has to get together and say this is what we need to do so people put in their inputs. You have a great big convocation and everyone agrees while somebody has to put it together,” said Keon.
His concept is that the program must emanate from the grassroots all the way to the elite level, even as he emphasized the need to work closely with the Department of Education and the Department of Interior and Local Government.
“It can be done,” Keon insisted in a resolute voice. “You just need to get the right people and overhaul everything. Have a real new beginning.”
When one senior sports editor suggested that Keon himself be tasked to lead the crusade for a renaissance in Philippine sports, the former Gintong Alay and Philippine Olympic Committee president conceded “I am prejudiced,” but believes his kind of leadership may well be the answer.
Keon stated quite frankly: “I am just as competent now as I was before. But that it is up to other people to make that judgment, not me.”
When it was pointed out that he had government support at that time since his uncle, Ferdinand Marcos was president, Keon agreed: “That’s why we have to look at things politically.”
He also debunked suggestions that our athletes, some of them at least, are politically motivated. “Our athletes are okay as long as you lead them properly.”
While he doesn’t altogether frown on the campaign where National Sports Associations and the Philippine Olympic Committee and PSC “look for people all over the world to cover up for our own inadequacies,” Keon remarked with an obvious tinge of disappointment that “we look for Fil-Ams, Fil-Brits, Fil-Australians etc. and we naturalize people even in basketball to cover up for the fact that our training is completely inadequate.”
Keon contended the Philippines needs to revisit the Gintong Alay blueprint and once again recruit coaches like Tony Benson, who handled the track athletes and Mr. and Mrs. Hatfield. He worked with the field athletes and she honed the skills of our young men and women in the jumps.
Keon said that while Benson was with Gintong Alay from the very beginning in 1980, the Hatfields from Oregon in the US were all “very good.”
A stickler for integrity and discipline, when Mike received complaints from athletes in the Gintong Alay training camp in Baguio, who claimed they didn’t get what they were supposed to get in terms of their food, he went to the camp, sat down and ate with the athletes and personally realized the complaints were valid.
He immediately fired the Camp Director, who wasn’t the first to be terminated because of shenanigans with the athletes’ food and nutrition.
Keon brought in American AC Cuda, himself a solidly built physical fitness buff as camp director and that put a stop to the small-time corruption.
One of the finest examples of Keon’s steadfast commitment to discipline was when he removed Lydia de Vaga from the roster of competitors in the 1985 ASEAN Track and Field Championships. De Vega was said to have broken training camp rules and left the Baguio City camp without permission on quite a few occasions and other athletes, who followed the rules complained about a double standard.
Keon acted immediately and just as quickly ran into trouble with the First Lady, Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos, who wanted Lydia re-instated.
Keon, despite the First Lady’s insistence, flatly refused, insisting that discipline was essential and even refused to entertain the pleas of then Metro Manila vice governor Mel Mathay.
This writer told Keon he would be fired by President Marcos within 30 minutes. And it happened.
Keon left for Australia and later wrote a letter on yellow pad paper in red ink, which was his wont and requested us to have it delivered to the President which we did through Minister Greg Cendana.
President Marcos knew Keon was right and not long afterwards, reinstated him, but that was the twilight of the Marcos years and there was not much time for him to really accomplish anything.
While he feels that looking for athletes overseas is good and noted that everyone is doing it, Keon is convinced that “this should be the cherry on top of the cake,” and not the backbone of our efforts to compete successfully in regional competitions.
Keon believes in a viable training program where we get people from overseas to augment that, to strengthen it.
“Then you’ll do well,” he said.
Having watched Mike Keon up close and personal during the glory days of the Gintong Alay era, we admired his steadfast commitment that integrity and discipline were non-negotiable, his hands-on attitude and his respect for the values and virtues of sportsmanship, fair play, hard work and dedication which have, in recent years, been seriously eroded by patronage politics and the lack of political will.
An optimist who believes in the capacity of the Filipino, Keon is confident things will change after 2016 and we join in hoping it will be for the better.