PSC disbanding all national teams?

The Philippine Sports Commission has sent out a depressing and potentially disastrous letter to various national sports associations, informing them of a new program it plans to implement that will impact the recruitment and training of current and future national teams. In a letter dated Nov. 3 and supposedly signed by Fr, Vic Uy, executive director of the PSC, the commission announced the formation of the Rationalization Plan for Athletes and Coaches (PSC-RPAC).

The PSC-RPAC’s objectives include “To professionalize the present system of recruitment, selection, training and development of athletes and coaches by adopting new policy parameters and general guidelines for the composition of the national team” and “To establish policy and administrative alternatives in key reform areas to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness in the planning, development, delivery and execution of programs and projects for the welfare and the benefit of the athletes and coaches who shall comprise the national team.”

Among the policy directions in the new PSC directive are statements to the effect that selection of athletes shall be based on performance, objectivity, responsibility, accountability, equity and return of investment.

Here’s the twist: “all current members of the national teams of all sports shall be automatically de-activated effective Jan. 1, 2010.

In other words, the Philippines shall have no national athletes come New Year. Wait, it gets worse.

“Deactivation of the national team shall consequently be adopted every year or as necessary, with the first day of the month of January of each year as the effective date of de-activation.”

On top of that, from January to the end of February, “athletes and coaches shall be required to undergo qualifying trials and similar tests to qualify for the national team. The commission shall subsequently operationalize a recruitment and selection program each year” following the regular de-activation. And all allowances shall be suspended.

This means that, after spending their full year training for the Southeast Asian Games in Laos, our athletes will come home, spend the holidays with their families, and be jobless. Moreover, no matter their experience or contribution to their sports, they will be made to go through the indignity of trying out for national teams. The timing could not be worse. Our athletes are two weeks away from departing for the SEA Games, and are now being told that they won’t have any place on the national team when they get back, even if they bring home medals. Obviously, this will open the door to undeserving athletes making the team in lieu of their more experienced counterparts, since it will be the PSC deciding who gets to be on the team or not.

Also, this is a form of government intervention, if and when it is implemented. The PSC, in effect, will take over the function of each and every national sports association (NSA). The question is, will the international federations of all sports recognize the choices of the PSC? Is the PSC so competent that it knows what is best or who is best for each and every sport? That’s like a general practitioner trying to practice brain surgery. And just who will the commission appoint to spearhead this move?

“For the purpose of a wider recruitment and selection base, the commission shall, in consultation with concerned NSAs, encourage recruitment of competent and qualified coaches, provided they meet the IQS (Internal Qualification Standard) set by the PSC-RPAC).”

If this is true, in effect, the PSC is trying to put a stranglehold on all the sports it holds. Many sports have already loudly voiced their complaints about how the PSC is being run, and how dictatorial policies have been aimed solely at opposing NSAs. Now, the net is being cast wider, to include most, if not all, NSAs.

Does the PSC mean to tell us that athletes like Paeng Nepomuceno, Harry Tañamor, and our other Olympians and champions like Asian Indoor Games gold medalist Annie Albania will be stricken from the national team each year to start over and wait until every March to know if they’re still in or out? Doesn’t the PSC know that it takes more then 10 months to build champions? What happens to “long-term” or even “grassroots” sports development if everybody has to start over every year? How can we plan or train properly with this kind of uncertainty?

Who would want to be an athlete if you only get your meager allowance from March to December?

It just doesn’t make sense.