P-Noy should resolve dragon boat, other sports rows - Coseteng

MANILA, Philippines - Former Sen. Nikki Coseteng said only President Noynoy Aquino can resolve sports issues which continue to divide the Philippine Olympic Committee, national sports associations, member clubs and their national athletes, notably the Dragon Warriors who came home with five gold medals from the recent world championships in Florida, USA.

“The President should meddle in this. It does not matter if Peping (Cojuangco, chair of the POC) is his uncle. PNoy should check what is really happening inside the POC and other national sports organizations,” the legislator-turned-educator said in Friday’s SCOOP sa Kamayan.

 Coseteng, who is president of the Diliman Preparatory School which has launched a swimming program for its preparatory, elementary and high school levels, said the swimming community is in a similar situation following recent events where swimmers could not swim abroad and worse, were stripped of their medals, because they were not members of the swimming association.

She said the Dragon Warriors were discredited by the POC despite their performance in the world championships.

Worse, Coseteng said, swimmers were not only discredited by the swimming president. They were stripped of their medals, as in the case of two sisters who won gold and silver medals in the Arafura Games in Australia.

The medals were retrieved from them by the organizers who were threatened by the swimming association official with suspension if they did not do so.

Mark Joseph, president of the Philippine Aquatic Sports Association (PASA), likewise reacted on the issue and played the blame game. In a radio interview, he said that it is the fault of the PR man why the swimming issues were sensationalized.

Early this year, Joseph was investigated by the House Committee on Youth and Sports for alleged malversation of funds, when he failed to produce proper accounting for the P30 million received by PASA from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) in 2008. The Committee also checked other PASA funds amounting to over P50 million from membership fees, donations, and financial assistance from the international Olympic Committee Solidarity Movement and International Swimming Federation (FINA) from the time Joseph assumed presidency in 2004. Coseteng was active in the hearings.