Baham Mitra – The dawn of a new GAB

MANILA, Philippines – The Games and Amusements Board  (GAB) of the Philippines was established in 1951 for the purpose of regulating and monitoring the operations of popular gaming and sporting events. Boxing and horseracing are the more popular sports where the GAB has jurisdiction over.

Over the years though, the landscape has changed, adding more allied activities under their area of supervision. 

Professional basketball, cockfighting soon became part of their influence. And in the more recent past  Muay Thai (Thai Boxing), Mixed Martial Arts, Billiards, Bowling, Tennis, Table Tennis and Women Boxing have been added to the list.

Being an appointive position, GAB chairmen have come and gone. 

Right after President Rodrigo Duterte took office, he appointed former Palawan governor and congressman Abraham “Baham” Mitra to take on the office of Chairman of  GAB.

“I was quite reluctant at first not being familiar with the function and the operations of the office,” Mitra shared.

“I just took the President’s promise that ‘Change is coming,’ I accepted the position and vowed to do well.”

Mitra went directly to work in his first few months as chairman.

He moved forward with a two-pronged approach. The first was to ensure a more efficient internal operation, and the second to be able to help grow and strengthen the sports his office covers.

Since he took office, GAB has received International Organization for Standardization (ISO) accreditation for Development Academy of the Philippines  (DAP) trainings and preparation of Quality Manuals. They have upgraded their Information Technology systems and have successfully reviewed and improved the citizen’s charter which includes the simplification of procedures and requirements faster and more efficient processing.

Moreover, GAB has complied with all the administrative and finance requirements asked from government offices.

Secondly and more importantly, moving into 2017, Mitra pointed out that the although his office’s role is first and foremost to regulate he reveals that inherently GAB’s  role  is to grow the games, sports and other activities it has authority over.  Regulation to him means that GAB ensures the proper implementation of rules and guidelines not to control but to protect. 

Having this as his compass, Mitra focused on improving relations with the major players and let them know he wants to help them succeed.

Since taking over, Mitra has opened the door for continuous dialogue. He wanted to know what was needed and how he can help. 

Positive improvements in boxing

With the boxing community alone, Mitra has sat down separately with referees and judges, promoters and the boxers themselves. At one 

“I was misquoted,” he mused, referring to one previous interview. “I never said boxing was dead, I discussed our initial assessment of the sport and realized that there was a need for us to support it.”  Mitra was referring to the data that he saw reflecting that from a total number of 1500 licensed professional boxers, there were only 642 when he came in.  “ Knowing the problem is the first step to the solution,” he quips.

Just recently, Mitra, together with his team, boxing chief  Dr. Nasser Cruz and Commissioners Matthew Gaston and Edward Trinidad armed with the results of their talks with boxing stakeholders are reviewing and revising several long standing processes with the aim of supporting the community better. 

They are seriously reviewing to shorten the compulsory 45 day rest required for boxers to take after every fight, according to his performance.  If the boxer came out unhurt, they are considering to bring down his rest period to 30 days.  From this basis there will be several levels depending on the post-fight assessment of the boxer’s health. 

This will allow boxers to have more fights and thus have the ability to earn more.

Another possible innovation is to allow non–rated Filipino professional boxers to compete in other countries with certain guidelines. Mitra says that as long as the match making is fair, they are willing to allow and even propose that boxers and promoters fight abroad because of earning potential and invaluable experience boxers will receive. 

On horse racing

In horse racing, Mitra has a more personal connection as both his grandfather and father were horse owners. He is familiar with the economics of the game and is sure that once the GAB is able to truly crackdown on illegal bookies, there will be a boost in profits to all stakeholders.

“The prize money can be increased, bet collection will be accounted for, the people will receive the correct and fair amounts.” He sees horseracing as a gentleman’s game and his vision is to bring it back up to the level it once was. He points out the Hong Kong model as his peg. 

As evidence to his commitment to crackdown on illegal gambling, he has requested that the “police” function of GAB be given back by the re-establishment of the Anti Illegal Gambling Unit (AIGU), a unit of personnel prepared to apprehend and clamp down on illegal gambling. This function was temporarily given back to the Philippine National Police (PNP) with the GAB only playing an administrative role.

GAB resiliency

The GAB has been operating for over 6 decades and had seen so many changes in the environment of the areas they cover. They are simply a governing body tasked to implement the laws and executive orders passed with regard to professional sports and games.

Mitra acknowledges this fact but holds the first few words of the GAB’s mission very close to his heart. It reads “to develop promising and world class professional athletes fit for all aspect of competition,” and he says that is what should be driving our operations. His desire is to ensure that all practicioner  of the sports and games the GAB covers are world class, skilled and truly professionals. 

Even in cockfighting, the GAB wants to ensure the quality level of the referees (sentensyador), the blade men and all the personnel involved in the proceedings. A commitment to this clearly elevates the level of cockfighting to its original definition in the Cockfighting Law of 1974 where then President Ferdinand Marcos established “sabong” with Presidential Decree No. 499, as a “vehicle for the preservation and perpetuation of native Filipino heritage and thereby enhance our national identity.”

Mitra is gung-ho as he looks forward to 2017 and beyond. In his words, “I want to revive boxing, renew interest in basketball, increase the prizes in horse racing, upgrade the skills of cockfighting personnel and although we are a cost center, I want to do my share to contribute to the revenue of the national government.”

Although he supports the President in his desire for change, Mitra says, “Why invent when you can just improve?” And so far that is what he has done.

Mike Ochosa is a boxing analyst for TV who has called 11 of Manny Pacquiao’s fights.  He was President of Punchout Boxing Club and has had the privilege of managing and training several professional fighters. 

Follow him on his FB page https://www.facebook.com/coachmikeochosa/, his You Tube channel, https://www.facebook.com/coachmikeochosa/, on Twitter at @mikeochosa and on Periscope. – Rappler.com