Tuesday, January 15, 2008 Cayetano draws ire of NSAs By Marianned Saberon-Abalayan
VARIOUS National Sports Associations, regional and local officials on Monday took a dig at Senator Pia Cayetano, days after her tirades against NSA presidents and for calling them to resign.
Philippine Amateur Swimming Association (Pasa) president Mark Joseph, in a text message to Sun.Star Davao, called Cayetano's idea as foolish.
"I think her idea is stupid, particularly, since our sport did so well and the Senate only allocated P25 million for sports last year. Maybe she should resign," Joseph said.
Joseph cited the performance of the swimming and diving team, in the last Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Thailand, which Cayetano used as her barometer in criticizing the NSAs for the Filipino athletes' performance.
The RP swimming team collected a total of eight gold medals, three silvers and seven bronzes while the diving team added two golds, four silvers and one bronze courtesy of Davao City divers and the water polo team got one silver.
In the 41-91-95 total medal haul of sixth-placer Team Philippines, Pasa emerged as the winning NSA. Second was the athletics team that bagged five golds, seven silvers and one bronze while the cycling team came third with four golds, one silver and five bronzes.
The RP billiards and snooker team was fourth with three golds, two silvers and four bronzes followed by dance-sport with two golds, four silvers and three bronzes in fifth, fencing with three golds, six silvers and six bronzes in sixth, rowing with two golds, two silvers and two bronzes in seventh, wushu with two golds, two silvers and three bronzes in eighth, archery with two golds, one silver and one bronze in ninth and softball with two golds in 10th.
In the medal-rich taekwondo event, RP only salvaged one gold, four silvers and six bronzes just like in boxing where the country also got one gold with 12 silvers and two bronzes and in judo with one gold, two silvers and six
bronzes.
National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) regional director James Infiesto also joined the fray, saying that Cayetano was a bit reckless in making such call.
"We need to offer a solution and dig deeper in the cause of the poor result of the SEAG. (Senator Cayetano should) Avoid making a hasty negative because she is known to be reasonable and full of wisdom," Infiesto said.
But Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman William "Butch" Ramirez was more diplomatic and refused to be dragged into a verbal tussle with the lady senator.
"I will respect the opinion of the good Senator," said Ramirez, whom Cayetano spared from her tirades during her visit to Davao City last week.
It was during the Philippine Information Agency 11 press conference where Cayetano made call for all NSA presidents to resign, but at the same time emphasized she has high respect for Ramirez.
Philippine Amateur Baseball Association (Paba) regional director JOaquin "Boy" Sarabia if there's anybody who is going to resign, it should be those from NSAs who had an unsatisfactory performance.
"Only those presidents of NSAs who did bad in the SEA Games should resign, not everybody," Sarabia said.
Philippine Volleyball Federation president Pete Mendoza issued a statement through Davao City-based regional director Daks Yambao: "Maybe hindi tayo kasama roon kasi hindi naman tayo sumali sa SEA Games. We are preparing for the next SEA Games so we're strengthening our grassroots program and at the same time changing the concept on our elite program."
Cayetano, a triathlete, joined the Philippine delegation that competed in the 24th edition of the biennial meet hosted by Thailand that became over-all champion.
She said the Filipino athletes' performance have gone so bad since NSAs have become the breeding grounds for the personal interest of their officials instead of being a breeding ground for trained athletes.
