PHILIPPINE sports is in shambles thanks to some of our leaders, who have abandoned their mandated roles and launched into endeavors far removed from the essential sporting activities for which they were elected to manage.
Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, an old-style politician has effectively abandoned his primary task of administering the sports programs and bringing together the various National Sports Associations in a concerted effort to lift us out of the abyss of utter mediocrity in such low-level competitions as the South East Asian Games in recent years under his patronage, and has embarked on a political campaign in support of Vice President Jojo Binay, which is an obvious effort to win favor from the man who is expected by many to be the country’s next president.
Whether this materializes or not, the fact remains that Peping Cojuangco has no right to meddle in politics and least of all demand that his nephew President Benigno Aquino III step down from office.
It’s a hopeless and unwarranted effort obviously fueled by a desire to get into some position of power if it ever happens, which we seriously doubt.
Cojuangco’s campaign against his nephew goes against the essence of Filipino family values and his wife Tingting Cojuangco also jumping into the fray makes it even more distasteful.
While President Aquino has come under incessant fire for some of his mistakes—real or imagined —we ourselves believe that the one sterling quality of President Aquino is his integrity.
The International Olympic Committee has time and again suspended National Olympic Committees over what it perceives as government intervention in sports. The IOC simply abhors the idea of government meddling in sports.
Given this position and measured against recent history, we wonder what the IOC thinks about the interference of sports leaders like Cojuangco in politics. It’s the other way around, but certainly more damaging to the image of sports.
Over at the Games and Amusements Board, the chairman of the GAB, another political appointee, has demonstrated his arrogance by demanding that two of our Olympic boxing hopefuls, Mark Anthony Barriga and Charly Suarez secure professional boxers licenses under the threat of getting a hold departure order against the two to stop them from competing in tournaments of the International governing body AIBA, which have been sanctioned by the IOC and will serve as qualifying tournaments for the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
AIBA has made it clear that should Barriga and Suarez secure professional boxers licenses from the GAB, they would automatically be disqualified from competing in the Olympics, thereby ruining our chances of a possible gold medal since the two are considered the country’s best bets.
In an utterly uncalled for position, Guanzon has told the ABAP—the local National Sports Association for boxing—“that’s your problem,” unmindful of the fact that the quest for an Olympic gold medal is a national undertaking that demands the support of everybody.
Guazon is serving as the lackey of the World Boxing Council, which is leading the fight against the inroads of AIBA into pro boxing. In fact, he was seen in Kunming, China during last weekend’s card where five WBC titles were at stake proudly wearing a big WBC insignia on his jacket.
The GAB chairman is supposed to be a neutral party and not the spokesman for an one of the world professional boxing organizations which, in turn, has antagonized the three other leading bodies—the WBA, the WBO and the IBF which will, in time, hurt our pro boxers.
Rather than look into the serious issue of the smuggling of boxers abroad to be led to the slaughter in countries like Thailand and putting a stop to hopeless mismatches in the Philippines, Guanzon, like Peping Cojuangco is engaged in his own brand of politics and to hell with the sport he is sworn to protect.
In a serious breach of integrity if not national self-respect for an official under the Office of the President, we gather that Guanzon enjoyed an all-expenses’ paid trip from the Chinese promoter. What a shame!