Ugly bureaucracy throwing equestrians off their mount

BUSAN–It was a hectic day for officials of the Philippine equestrian team Tuesday after organizers raised a lot of questions regarding the licenses of the four horses brought in by the Filipino bets.

Tom Carrasco, the RP chief of mission, said team officials burned the lines trying to secure additional documents to satisfy organizers of the equestrian competitions beginning with the preliminary rounds in some events Wednesday.

"A lot of questions were raised regarding the clearances of the horses, etc. But we can address that. In fact, a lot of papers regarding the horses are being faxed at this moment," said Carrasco.

"Madaming dokumento. But we don’t really see any problem anymore," added Carrasco.

The RP bets in equestrian are Sydney Olympian Toni Leviste, Mikee Cojuangco, Michelle Barrera, Danielle Cojuangco and Paola Cojuangco, an alternate.

Except for Leviste who brought in her horse from Belgium, the rest had theirs coming from Manila. Mikee came in as early as Sept. 12 while the rest planed in last Thursday. Asked if the questions suddenly raised were just meant to distract our athletes, Carrasco said: " I hope not."