Hapee to the rescue

Filipino swimmer Ryan Arabejo will remain a student at Bolles High School in Florida after all but PASA president Mark Joseph said yesterday it’s no thanks to the PSC.

Joseph made an impassioned appeal to PSC chairman Harry Angping last week to release the funds for Arabejo to stay in school. The deadline to settle Arabejo’s payables was March 5. If the bill stayed outstanding, he would’ve been sent home and stricken off the rolls of graduating students.

Arabejo, 19, was the focus of Angping’s recent tirade against Fil-Ams, Fil-foreigners and Filipinos being financed by the PSC to train abroad. Angping later clarified he wasn’t against the idea of Filipinos – whether Fil-Ams or not – training abroad but only meant that in a long-term perspective, the time is now to begin recruiting local talent to balance the national pool of athletes.

Angping said his door is open for Joseph to explain Arabejo’s case. Joseph, however, sought an alternative solution. Obviously, there’s bad blood between the two, stemming from the POC elections last year when they took opposite sides and engaged in fiery verbal tussles in media. Unless an acceptable third party mediates, it would be next to impossible for Angping and Joseph to meet on their own and bury the hatchet.

Joseph is a member of the POC Executive Board that recently issued a strong statement demanding Angping’s ouster for going against the principles of Olympism. Angping was accused of discrimination and violating the law by overstepping his authority as PSC chairman in encroaching on the affairs of autonomous National Sports Associations.

Angping reacted to the POC clamor by saying it was just an emotional outburst triggered by a misunderstanding. He mentioned when things cool off, he would make the first move in trying to reconcile with the POC.

“Nobody can remove me from office except the President,” said Angping. “If she tells me to go, I’ll go because I serve at her pleasure. I was appointed to do a job and that’s exactly what I’m doing. The bottom line is some NSAs don’t like what I’m doing because I’m setting things straight.”

When Angping said his wife, a Congresswoman, was assured by the Chief Executive he would be retained, his detractors went wild. Angping was chastised for hiding under the President’s skirt and employing his wife as a shield instead of fighting like a man. But Angping was simply telling the truth. At least, he’s honest.

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As for Arabejo, Joseph said he couldn’t wait for Angping’s heart to bleed.

“Dr. Cecilio Pedro did a Good Samaritan gesture for Ryan and guaranteed payment,” he related. “I’ve communicated this with Bolles and briefed them of the whole situation and I’m sure they will grant an extension of remittance. Dr. Pedro was a swimmer and also committed to support PASA’s G-League, as in grassroots. The G-League is part of PASA’s new swimming talent management program where Stage 1 is talent identification.

“The winners will eventually make their way up the ladder into PASA’s Star (Swimmer Talent Achievement and Recognition) database which is Stage 2 for talent selection. We need to support our top junior swimmers and help the best swimmers continue winning which is Stage 3 for talent development. “Not that we didn’t have this before but the difference with Dr. Pedro’s input is that we will be hewing strictly to the FINA standards of conducting talent identification events and ranking swimmers. We will use computer software that has imbedded algorithms to generate the equivalent of quotients or batting averages out of swimming times relative to others worldwide. This will allow Hapee Toothpaste to strategize in identifying the swimmers to invest in because the use of computers makes the location of a swimmer irrelevant (Mindanao or anywhere in the world) and allows us to select intelligently since the quotient, called the FINA IMX point score, erases the differences of sex, distance, stroke and age without discrimination.”

Joseph described Pedro’s entry as “a silver lining on even the darkest moments.” He said Pedro’s desire to support swimming came as early as Eric Buhain’s term in the PSC. But it was PSC commissioner Fr. Vic Uy who put Joseph in touch with Pedro last year.

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“With all due respect to Harry, he did make an effort to get Filipino-Chinese businessmen to invest in sports some weeks back,” continued Joseph. “We believe that support will come in for NSAs once harmony in local sports is achieved. During our meetings, Dr. Pedro was all business. Having been a swimmer, he knows that benchmarks have to be clear, time standards respected and world class technologies applied. PASA developing champions and Dr. Pedro investing in national pride follows a no-nonsense, no-politics business approach.”

Joseph said a PSC resolution dated last Sept. 5 and a PSC-PASA memorandum of agreement dated last Oct. 8 confirm without doubt the PSC’s commitment to pay for Arabejo’s stay at Bolles. Last Feb. 24, Joseph sent a letter to Angping reminding him of the PSC’s pledge and explaining Arabejo’s predicament. Only a few days ago, Arabejo achieved three US NCAA qualifying times, bolstering his chances of gaining a scholarship in a Division I college next schoolyear.

In reporting on PASA’s gains on the local front, Joseph said some high watermarks were posted at the recent tryouts in Laguna. Bulacan’s Jhessie King Lacuna, 15, smashed the IOC/FINA qualifying time in the 200-meter freestyle for the 2010 Youth Games and Parañaque’s Jasmine Al-Khaldi, 15, also broke the qualifying time in the 100-meter freestyle.

“Jhessie has been in PASA’s talent identification program since 2007 and is just the first of many more homegrown swimmers climbing our ladder,” said Joseph. “We will seek training and education opportunities for him abroad just as we have always done for outstanding local swimmers.”