Ramirez overclaiming credit for Philsports

One of the most regrettable things that one can say about some of our sports leaders is their tendency to callously ignore historical facts, as I told shooting association president Art Macapagal who was supposed to have said in an article written by The STAR’s Abac Cordero that the “PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) is on the right track with the establishment of the Philippine Sports Institute.”

The article goes one to quote Macapagal, “The PSC under chairman Ramirez, should be commended for addressing the fundamental needs (of) Philippine sports to develop at a faster pace.” The article then goes on say that the “PSI, actually launched by a previous administration but seeing its reality only under Ramirez, will be unveiled on Dec. 10 at the Philsports Complex in Pasig City.”

It seems that despite my many attempts in this column and in interviews I had in media, there is a real attempt to muddle the issue, distort the facts, fool unsuspecting sports leaders like Macapagal and manage perceptions regarding the real beginnings of the Philippine Sports Institute (Philsports) which is now being renamed, as part, probably, of the new game plan to grab credit for the establishment of Philsports, into PSI.

The idea behind the creation of a Philippine Sports Institute, as I mentioned in many previous articles and in the book, “Sports and Governance” – Pole-vaulting into the 21st century, which was launched by then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at Club Filipino on Nov. 27, 2000, and in Chapter three (Physical Education and School Sports in the Philippines: A Historical Point of View) which I wrote to form part of the UNESCO-commissioned book “Innovative Practices in Physical Education and Sports in Asia,” started during my term as PSC chairman on the instructions of President Fidel V. Ramos. Years before FVR instructed me however, the stage for Philsports was set.

The setting was the fifth Asian Games in Bangkok. The outcome for the Philippines had been aptly called the “Bangkok Debacle.” It had won only two gold medals. On top of that, the defending champion basketball team not only lost the gold medal but also ended up in sixth place.

In reaction to this debacle, former President Marcos instructed Secretary of Education Carlos P. Romulo to determine the reasons for our dismal performance and submit recommendations that would arrest the decline.

The report, entitled “Toward a National Sports Development Program, was submitted by Romulo on March 6, 1967. One of the major recommendations was for the University of the Philippines to organize an Institute of Physical Education to train coaches and physical education instructors, and to merge the National College of Physical Education (NCPE) with it.”

Many initiatives were taken from that point on up to EDSA in 1986, when the Philippine institute of Physical Education and Sports was placed under the Department of Education, Culture and Sports. In 1989, the Institute ceased to exist.

Many years passed without any movement toward the creation of an institute that would serve as a national training center for athletes, coaches, physical educators, sports scientists, recreation leaders and all the essential specialists needed to carry out a mass-based program.

In 1992, however, then senator Jose Lina, Cristy Ramos-Jalasco and PSC chairman Perry Mequi, organized the Baguio Sports Summit: one of the Summit’s, 20 or so resolutions was the establishment of a sports academy/institute.

Following are more facts that Ramirez and others who want to keep accurate records should internalize:

One, on May, 1996, FVR issued a memorandum directing me, in coordination with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, “to establish a Philippine National Institute for Sports within the Philippine Sports Commission.”

Two, I established Philsports and President Ramos inaugurated it on Nov. 12, 1996 at the Philsports Complex (formerly University of Life) which is still the name even PSC uses. One wonders therefore how can you inaugurate on Dec. 10, what already exists? Haven’t there been previous “inaugurations” of Philsports under Ramirez’s term?

Three, Philsports held a weeklong training session after its inauguration for trainees from colleges and universities in the three regions of the Visayas. The trainees received certificates of completion. A Philsports satellite center at the Abellana complex in Cebu City was established on Nov. 5, 1997. How then could the “reality” of Philsports have taken place only under Ramirez when all these documented events happened long before he decided to appropriate the concept and pass it on as his own idea?

So, what inauguration are we talking about on Dec. 10? Is this deception? Is there mental dishonesty involved here? Either Philsports was established long before this so-called inaugural or not; one is either a virgin or not a virgin, right?