COLOR me impatient but I’m eager to finally see what the Philippine Sports Commission will do with the officials of the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association. To recap, Patafa has had a stormy relationship with Cebuana marathoner Mary Joy Tabal, who, until now, has no idea when she’ll return to the national team.
PSC commissioner William Butch Ramirez told national team me mbers in his latest talk with them to be unafraid in airing out grievances against officials.
For too long, Ramirez said, the national athletes have been voiceless, while the old boys network of the NSAs control their fate. (Curiously, sometimes, it’s literally an old boys club). How many times have national team members been caught in the political crossfire? How many times were they forced to issue an apology when they took sides?
Exhibit A is volleyball.
Exhibit B? Well, go search for that time when the national athletes who joined a rally were forced to issue an apology.
“Air out grievances, don’t be afraid to report any maltreatment,” Ramirez said.
The chairman also lamented the fact that some officials of the NSAs are too busy doing their own thing that they never even visit coaches and athletes during their training. Not even once.
Heck, I’m not sure if some of these officials even recognize the faces of their athletes.
Because for too long, that’s how sports is played in the Philippines. Board room politics is a lot more active and busier than actual training.
So the good chairman, who is turning into some champion for national athletes, wants our men and women of the national teams to be unafraid in airing their grievances. He also recognizes the fact
that some might just be making mountains out of mote hills but the PSC, he said, is duty-bound to investigate their grievances.
Now here comes my impatience. The PSC knows Tabal’s situation and I known the Cebuana has aired her grievances long before the good chairman encouraged other athletes to do so. But, until now, nothing has changed.
I know the PSC has had talks with Patafa and I think the other NSA officials and national athletes are eager to know what comes out of it.
It’s simple really. If Patafa gets away with it, it will encourage other NSA officials to go along with their program. To do things as they have always been done. If they won’t, perhaps they’d start really paying attention to what the PSC says, check google maps for the location of their own athletes’ training so they can finally visit them or heck, even start holding training programs for their national athletes instead of staying in air-conditioned offices waiting for the doleouts from their international parent organizations.
The SEA Games is in August, that’s barely six months away, any uncertainty over a national athlete’s stay in the national team should have been lifted by now.