PHILIPPINE Sports Commission chairman Ricardo “Richie” Garcia vowed to follow the transparency and accountability platform of his boss, President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
MANILA. Philippine Sports Commission chairman Richie Garcia vows to adopt “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” platform of President Aquino. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)
“The PSC will be very transparent. I was already approached by two people willing to talk about the anomalies. Ang sabi ko sa mga empleyado, kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap. We will just do our job to make things work,” he said.
Asked if he would follow the ‘whistleblower’ speech of President Aquino in his State of the Nation Address (Sona), Garcia welcomed the idea while giving focus on how to improve the sorry state of Philippine sports.
The champion golfer from Bacolod City said he plans to publish the financial statements of national sports associations after carefully assessing them.
He also sought the unity of opposing sports bodies PSC and POC to allow consolidated support for the Filipino athletes who will participate in the Asian Games this November.
“We will have a united PSC-POC. We cannot separate one from the other. If we can unify the two, I’m sure that we will have a good future in sports,” a beaming Garcia said.
To recall, the PSC and the POC had conflicts over various sports policies like the sending of two separate delegations to the 2009 Southeast Asian Games in Laos, among others.
But this animosity may soon die out as Garcia maintains a healthy relationship with POC president Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, who was seated beside him during the forum.
“Dito sa sports, walang magkakakampi, walang magkakalaban, iisa lang tayong pamilya. It’s good that we have a President that is interested in sports and we have to show to the people we are clean and follow the values of transparency and integrity,” he said.
Cojuangco earlier made the recommendation to President Aquino to appoint Garcia and new commissioners Jolly Gomez, Buddy Andrada, Chito Loyzaga and Akiko Thomson.
Meantime, Garcia chose PSC chief consultant Merlita Ibay and PSC official Bong Dinglasan to closely work with Asian Games chief of mission and POC spokesman Joey Romasanta for the funding aspect of the country’s stint in Guangzhou, China. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)