A Drought 15 Million pesos (and a Toyota Altis) could not solve

by: Dharel Placido

It’s the last day of the Beijing Olympics and once again, our athletes seem to be going back to the country sans the medal. While the United States and China had raked gold medals, our country is yet to win its first.

Perhaps, not until the government roll up its sleeves to overhaul the country’s athletics system, the country will continue to suffer its gold medal drought in the Olympic Games to come. Since the country joined the games in 1924, it has garnered only 7 bronze and 2 silver medals, making it the fourth country to have the longest gold medal drought next to Haiti (1900), Iceland (1908) and Monaco (1920).

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and sponsors from private sectors thought this year’s delegation of fifteen athletes was more than ready to claim the country’s first gold so they put up a 15 Million pesos cash incentive for each athlete who shall win the country’s long-sought Olympic mint. A Toyota Altis was also supposed to be given to the Filipino Olympian who would win the first gold.

Can a 15 Million pesos incentive improve our standing in the Olympics? Maybe not.

Winning the country’s first gold may take more than luring the athletes some money. How big or small the incentive for the athletes is definitely not the real concern. It’s a question of how the government takes care of the expenses of our athletes during their training, and its willingness to find amateur athletes with great potentials.

The law mandates that the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) should give 5% of its gross annual income to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) to support the athletes’ expenses but it was recently reported that only half of this was being given. Since 2005, PSC claims it has lost 1.2 Billion due to the reneging of PAGCOR of its obligation.

Our athletes only get to have 350 pesos daily allowance for food and about 8,000 as their monthly allowance. How can one expect for the Filipino athletes to fare well in the Olympics if they will fight with an empty stomach? The situation could have been acceptable only if other third-world countries like Zimbabwe and Ethiopia didn’t win even a single medal, but they did.

An amount of 8,000 alone is not even enough to support an athlete’s demanding diet. Vitamins supplements and training equipments may cost more. They only get 8,000 even if PAGCOR is earning an average of about 25 Billion pesos yearly.

What could be even more disappointing is to learn that at this point in the country’s history where it becomes known to be a boxing powerhouse, the country only got to send one boxer to Beijing in the person of Harry Tañamor, a clear reflection of the government’s lack of support for the athletes.

When our athletes thought they would fare well when they go to Beijing, they realized that what they had prepared for was nothing compared to the enormous ability of the athletes from other countries. And so they go home shamefaced.

The Filipino talent is nothing to neglect. We have proven that when Lea Salonga became famous for her role in Miss Saigon, when Manny Pacquiao put the map of the Philippines in the boxing world, or when we hear of stories of artists like Allan Pineda of Black Eyed Peas, and Arnel Pineda of Journey who became successful abroad. We all know that there’s more to our Filipino athletes. Bagging the gold is just like an egg waiting to be cooked.

Somewhere at the corner of this country there might be a swimmer who would smash the record of Michael Phelps. A boxer might be just there, waiting for the government to help him punch his way to the gold. Even if the government releases a billion peso for the first Olympian gold medallist, it will not make any change.

Whoever that first Filipino Olympian gold medallist may be, we will be sure that he doesn’t only have a great talent, but he was also well-supported by the government.