Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Rama: A rock and a hard place By Karlon N. Rama Stage Five
I CHOKED reading, in yesterday’s sports page, a news piece about a local sports source’s reaction to City Councilor Edgardo Labella’s measure citing the ineptitude of the country’s sports body.
It was a gag reflex, a physical reaction to the feeling of disgust that leapt suddenly from my stomach, as my eyes followed the lines on the ink-stained sheets. I didn’t, couldn’t finish reading.
Labella, according to the report, had authored a resolution scoring the country’s sports bodies over the disaster that was Team Philippines’ performance in the Beijing Games. He said that funds for athletes should be handled by people who are “competent, dedicated and most all of all, above suspicion.”
The unnamed local sport source that the writer interviewed, however, brought Gar-Bell back to the ground. Don’t bother with the craters on the moon, Mr. Councilor, the source might as well have said. It’s the potholes on the road that you should look out for.
“Wala man gani sila makakuhit sa atong mga athletes aron pangutan-on kung kumusta na sila og kumusta na ilang training (They haven’t even checked on how our local athletes are doing),” the source posed.
And the source gave cold hard facts:
Facts which were painful–athletes representing Cebu City, our city, scrounging for leftover food from Cebuanos playing for other teams while defending their softball crown in Batangas.
And facts which were embarrassing – athletes from our city skipped the event’s opening parade because they didn’t have uniforms.
This all happened last May, at the National Softball Open in Batangas. Team Cebu City, under Coach Dionisio Bacarisas, was supposed to be the defending champion and went there to defend their crown.
They lost.
The athletes couldn’t even come home on their own because there was no money for tickets. A shipping company had to let them board on credit after getting a call from Cebu City Councilor Jack Jakosalem.
I felt bad reading the piece. The athletes must have felt worse living it.
The official line is that the budget didn’t get released on time. Good Lord, such great relief this excuse brings.
Big surprise that budget is always on time when City Hall needs to buy cars, office fixtures and other stuff, and when some public official needs to travel to a foreign land somewhere.
The honest fact is that people didn’t care for these athletes.
The people at City Hall didn’t care as they passed the voucher around from desk to desk for signature. Hell, they probably didn’t even bother to find out what the paperwork was for.
The heads of the City’s sports bodies also didn’t care.
Otherwise, they would have fought teeth and nail to get the papers through. After all, it isn’t like requesting millions to fix the Cebu City Sports Complex track. It’s only food, uniform and transportation money for a softball team brining Cebu City’s name.
And we, you and me, don’t care. Or we don’t care enough. Otherwise, we would have long ago stopped electing people who say they support sports but only use it as a vehicle to gain popularity and run for higher public office.
The piece was written by Marian C. Baring, who’s covered sports since the day she left journalism school. She is among those sports journalists who have risen to the top of their game, respected by colleagues, sources and athletes alike.
Always hushed in the newsroom, a trait that runs in solid contrast to the color of her highlighted hair, Marian manifests a deep understanding of the issues that run beneath the surface of Cebu’s sports scene.
How many times she must have silently screamed in utter frustration covering something between a rock and a hard place.
POST SCRIPT. I have received a couple of emails regarding the single stack shooting event that will open at the Cebu Pistol and Rifle Association (CPRA) on Sept. Sept. 5. I have not received a copy of the course of fire, so I’m as clueless about it as anybody else. I’m sorry.
