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MANILA, Philippines – Senators Sonny Angara and Antonio Trillanes IV blamed the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) for the sad state of the country’s sports program.
Angara and Trillanes, during the Senate committee hearing on Games, Amusements and Sports on Thursday, grilled the POC for failing to address certain issues that several national sports association (NSA) are facing since former Tarlac Rep. Jose ”Peping” Cojuangco was elected as the chief of the country’s Olympic Committee in 2006.
Several NSAs are currently experiencing leadership disputes while the country’s performance in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games have declined rapidly. The Philippines has yet to win its first Olympic gold medal and have been shutout four times since the 2000 Sydney Games.
Two groups have been contesting the presidency of the NSAs in archery, billiards, karate and table tennis.
The Philippines’ performance in the SEA Games dipped after the country topped the regional sporting event as hosts in 2005. The country’s national athletes collected 29 medals—113 gold, 84 silver and 94 bronze in the Manila SEA Games.
In the 2007 edition in Thailand, the Philippines dropped to sixth with 41-91-96 haul, climbed to fifth in 2009 in Laos but had fewer medals (33-25-52). The country placed sixth in the 2011 Indonesia SEA Games with 36-56-77 and had its worst finish in the biennial sporting event at seventh in Myanmar last year (29-34-37).
Trillanes put the blame on Cojuangco, the uncle of President Benigno Aquino III, on the problems that plague Philippine sports.
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“He is a hopeless case. He is a problem. Yung (The) dragon boat, track and field, table tennis sinira nya (he ruined it),” Trillanes said.
Trillanes even filed graft and corruption charges against Cojuangco and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Ricardo Garcia for the anomalous disbursement of funds by the country’s government sports arm amounting to P2.3 million.
Cojuangco, however, fired back by saying that Trillanes was only politicking and filed the complaint after the POC failed to accredit the Table Tennis Association of the Philippines (Tatap) faction headed by the senator.
Angara, meanwhile, questioned POC Executive Director Cynthia Carrion why the multi-titled Philippine dragon boat team was scratched from the country’s delegation the Myanmar SEA Games.
“[Why didn’t] you do something about it? The [Philippine dragon boat team] is a world champion team and [they have] won so many events, but was not able to join the SEA Games?” said Angara.
Carrion explained that the country’s dragon boat team was not dropped from the official SEA Games delegation due to its slim chances of winning a medal. This irked Angara further.
“How can you say they could not win if they won? I just cannot understand. We all know that we can do better,” Angara said.
The Philippine dragon boat team went home with seven medals, six gold and one silver, in the 2012 International Canoe Federation Dragon Boat World Championship at the Idroscalo Club in Milan, Italy. – Rappler.com
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