Thumbing down a Department of Sports

IT’S AN idea that’s kosher to like-minded individuals led by two former Philippine Olympic chiefs and a businessmansportsman:

Create a Department of Sports (DOS) to bring athletic disciplines back to the grassroots where they belong.

The most vocal of the Big Three is Michael Keon, erstwhile president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC). He says with the sitting President lending an ear, a Secretary of Sports will have precious time with the Chief Executive during huddles in Malacañang to bat for sports as a tool for community development and nation building.

Cito Dayrit, another ex-POC boss told the INQUIRER previously that a Cabinet rank for sports could be “workable … with the right people with the right vision to make it happen.”

The latest to re-energize his support for a DOS is GlobalPort owner Mikee Romero. In a blanket statement Wednesday, Romero, once head of the national sports associations (NSAs) for cycling and shooting, said he was again pushing for the executive post “because it will resolve a lot of perennial problems in sports.”

“Hay ’na ko (Gosh), it is not as simple as what Mikee envisions,” sighs Jose Luis “Jolly” Gomez of the Philippine Sports Commission in an e-mail. Gomez is commissioner at the PSC, the government’s sports policy-making and funding agency that would be abolished if Keon has his way.

Gomez, who usually shuns publicity came out with a mouthful in giving a thumbs down to current pitches for a DOS.

If a department is created, you “need to set up regional offices and staff the same” and that entails a new budget, he says. Where will an administration faced with bigger concerns get the money?

And suppose it is created, will the new body replace the PSC in function and not in operation, because should that hap- pen, the move won’t achieve anything and could result in creating “a … monster with bigger excuses for failure,” according to Gomez.

He also wonders what role a DOS secretary would play in the affairs of the NSAs. Can the secretary remove incompetent officials and non-performing athletes paid tidy stipends from public funds without being charged with government intervention? Let’s face it, we could end up with a toothless department, explains Gomez.

The commissioner adds that the biggest question mark under a fresh setup is the POC that has turned into a high- ly politicized private entity that pulls the levers behind the curtains for the PSC and many of the NSAs.

“We want to be an advanced democratic society, but in sports we are” still Third World, dictatorial,” laments Gomez.

Host Pangasinan placed fourth overall among 45 teams in the recently concluded Philippine National Games.

Most of the Games were held at the well-maintained Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen, the provincial capital

Pangasinan was a “cooperative and vigilant host,” said Maria Fe Alano, the PNG project director. She said provincial officials led by Gov. Amado Espino Jr. “were ever attentive … to make the event hassle-free.”

The governor’s son and namesake, Amado III, hopes to continue nurturing the province’s rich sports heritage.