‘Haw-siaw’ NSAs should vanish soon

ILIKE the stand of Butch Ramirez.

“If you don’t perform, look for your own money the next time,” he said. He directed that terse statement to the officials of the National Sports Associations (NSAs) during the PSA Sports Forum this week.

“Our job is to fund,” he continued. “To prepare the athletes is their (POC and NSAs) job.” He was on target. What he said was the foundation upon which the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) was established in 1987: To help finance the training of athletes and their participation in international meets, mainly the SEA Games, Asian Games and the Olympic Games.

But then, it’s not just funding that the PSC is mandated to do.

More importantly, the PSC must see to it that the funds it disburses to NSA officials are being put to good use.

Are the funds being spent wisely, as in solely being spent for the athletes’ well being? And what is “good use” again? PSC money, first and foremost, must ensure sufficient and proper training for our athletes. In short, no “haw-siaw.”

Of course, everybody knows what “haw-siaw” means. It is the spooky way of training athletes.

With that despicable habit obviously being practiced by many of our NSA officials that’s been ongoing for the longest time, they waste PSC funds, period.

And if they are suspected—perennially, it seems?—of pocketing PSC money to the deplorable detriment of our athletes’ welfare, that is justified.

“I will really tell the NSAs to perform because the people, including the senators and congressmen, are starting to ask where we really stand,” said Ramirez, the returning PSC chairman.

A man of impeccable integrity, Ramirez said there’s “so much pressure for us” to deliver the goods in the 2017 SEA Games in Singapore.

In a rather oblique way of hitting our NSA officials, Ramirez asked: “Will we be No. 8 or No. 9 (next year)? I don’t know. Only the NSAs know the answer.”

We had fallen way behind, finishing No. 6 last year after victory in 2005 with a whopping winning total of 291 medals.

We miserably dropped to No. 6 in 2007 in Thailand, No. 5 in 2009 in Laos, No. 6 again in 2011 in Indonesia and— horribly—No. 7 in 2013 in Myanmar.

Will we hit No. 8 in 2017 in Kuala Lumpur? Or even No. 9?

Not only is Ramirez an interested spectator.

The whole nation, too.