Eric Buhain: Back to the deep end

It is a never-ending lament: Philippine sports is mired in politics and intrigue, and the athletes get the short end of the deal.

Thus the recent appointment of former national swimming champion Eric Buhain as Chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission (psc) was hailed as a long-needed breath of fresh air. But still, there are those who question the experience–or lack thereof–of this 31- year-old for such a sensitive post, given that the functions of the Commission are essentially administrative and fiduciary in nature.

What is novel is that rather than pay lip service to the theory of separation of sports and politics, Eric recognizes that it is in the nature of the beast to have the two entwined and that the order of the day is to ensure that while the Commissioners and politicians go about their "business", the athletes are properly motivated and looked after. And maybe that will be his legacy and the essential difference he brings to the position.

Having been an elite athlete in the national pool (literally and figuratively), nurtured and, at times, victimized by the system, he knows first hand what and how the athletes feel.

"The Commission is there to provide a service. We exist in order to sustain and assist the various National Sports Associations (NSA) to be the financial life-line of the athletes. Sports development is also part of our raison d’etre. With the money that passes through the Commission’s hands, coming from pagcor and via appropriations, it’s easy to lose sight of this primary purpose and think of the Commission as judge and jury of what the face of Philippine sports should look like. But that’s not at all what we’re there for; we should be making the sustenance of our athletes always the priority. We cannot emphasize enough how we’re there for service, directing the funds towards programs, towards welfare of the athletes, towards a sharing of resources."

Married to Batangas Congresswoman Eileen Ermita-Buhain and blessed with a daughter who’s turning two this year, Eric knows only too well that when he accepted the chairmanship, he lost the right to say he heads a family of three; he’s now "father" to all the athletes who hope to carry the national colors. As Eileen commented, "Eric is really in a very unique position. It wasn’t so many years ago that he was marching with the other athletes, with grievances on how the system was being run, targeting the Commission for their handling of the different sports programs. He’s literally come full circle–from being an athlete, to being a coach, to being involved with the Swimming Association and now heading the Commission. Given his age, the athletes can still feel he’s one of them, and yet he now holds a position which affords him the opportunity to really make a difference and make right all that he felt was deficient in terms of how the Commission took care of things."

And Eric is more than ready to meet this challenge head-on. He isn’t just a swimmer, now out of water; he carries a cum laude degree in finance from the La Salle University in Pennsylvania. It’s a background that bodes well, given the nature of the Commission’s work.

"To the last centavo, I’m ready to take responsibility for how the Commission will go about its business. What’s past is past; we now have to look forward, prioritize the international competitions that loom on the horizon. And while that may sound simple, there is a historical record we have to live with and now make adjustments for. But I’ve promised Eileen’s fellow Congressmen that come what may, I will make myself personally responsible and answerable for how the funds granted to the Commission are utilized from the point my tenure started."

Good luck to Eric on that. If the grapevine can be believed, there has been a lot going on in the Commission over the years that would prefer to stay in the deep shade and resist the clear light of day. Sports columnists have made hay with issues such as a P1- million budget for a baseball scoreboard that was manual and remains so even after said expenditure. There’s the P8,000 monthly stipend for athletes which is the same amount Eric was getting during his swimming days more than a decade ago. The almost funny-if-it-wasn’t-so-sad fact that some janitors and security guards working for the psc earn more in a month than the athletes. Washing machines that have not worked for months, living quarters riddled with termites and vermin, "rewards" promised to bemedalled athletes that have not been disbursed for over two years, disappearing funds that run into the millions of pesos... the list seems endless.

To his credit, Eric refuses to comment on these issues, saying it would be counter-productive to address them. With the plight of the athletes being what it is, it would serve no purpose to heap blame or finger-point.

"There’s more than enough work at hand. The idea is to get going, to jumpstart the legitimate programs and directives that are in place. My preferred approach is to go to each Association, tell them point blank this is the money that will be given to you by the Commission, given what’s available for all the 50 Associations. Knowing that is what they have to work with for the whole year, they can now ascertain what creative and alternative sources of funding they can tap. And on this, we aim to assist them, approaching the private sector and municipalities, making them identify which sport they can lend support to and following through on that."

He continues: "Remember, we have to be practical. The private sector will only come in if they can see the return. And if not necessarily in monetary terms, it has to be provided via the commercialization of their participation. The days of the noble, amateur status is gone. Even the Olympics is a hundred billion dollar opportunity. It’s one of the biggest marketing gimmicks around. To deny that is to be left behind. So, we can entice the private sector to support the various Associations and devise schemes which will help them feel the support is justified.

"Medicines can be sponsored. Just today I got a very positive response form Wyeth Philippines. Clusivol and other multivitamins as well as Stresstabs for more than 900 athletes! And then, we can go into bottled water, energy drinks, uniforms and laundry services. The possibilities are there; what’s important is that we do not compromise on the quality of the products or services which are brought in."

As to what Eric was up to right before his appointment, he was National Training Director of the National Swimming Association. In charge of the swimmers all over the country who had been identified with potential for the national pool, Eric ensured that their programs were in the "loop" of the NSA.

"In fact, it’s an offshoot of my experience here that I’m trying to bring into the program of the psc. What I’d like is for the potentials in the various sports to be brought into their respective Association’s programs. To create a ‘farm team’, as it were, a level of novices who can be brought up faster and more effectively by sharing in the Association’s resources of top coaches and training facilities. We can achieve this by sending the coach to where these ‘potentials’ are, having the coach check on his routine and making suggestions on how to improve. This way, we don’t have to bring these raw talents right away to Manila where costs become a factor. Yet, we allow them in any affordable way possible to share in the Association’s premier resources."

Life has really become topsy-turvy for this young couple. Eileen recounts, "Mondays to Thursdays, I’m at Congress. On the weekends I go to my constituency in Batangas. With Eric, he’s at the office by 8. With all the visitors and problems, it’s only at five when he can buckle down and address the readings and materials he’s supposed to peruse. It’s close to eight at night before he gets home. As most of the meets and grassroots activities for sports development are held on the weekends, he can’t even call Saturdays and Sundays his own time. We steal whatever time we can make to be with our daughter. Sometimes nga, I call when I’m on my way home and check if she’s still awake; if she is, I tell the yaya to please try and entertain her so I won’t reach the house and find her asleep. Eric and I have agreed that we have to take the steps to create even one day in the week when we can be together as a family without compromising our respective responsibilities."

Let’s face it, no matter what political pundits, spin-doctors and American PR firms may throw our way, these are still dismal times for the Philippines. Business is bad, criminals are on the loose, life is hard. During times like these, one rallying point for national pride is an athlete’s dizzying brush with "international gold". We forget regional differences, racial distinctions, language and dialect barriers.

It is Eric’s fervent hope to bring us such moments once again. It’s a tall order, what with the Asian Games in Busan, Korea set for September of this year. Everyone’s expecting–hoping for–a haul of gold, and everyone’s looking to Eric to make it happen. Truly, it’s deep waters that Eric is treading these days, but he feels he was destined for this end of the pool.