SENATOR Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero on Monday asked the Philippine Sports Commission to also help national sports associations strengthen their national open tournaments to supplement government’s grassroots programs with other high-level competitions.
Escudero observed that only a few NSAs have conducted their own national open tournaments over the past years, and that NSAs now only rely on the PSC, with their elite athletes and some rising members of their national pools taking part in the Philippine National Games in lieu of their own open competitions.
“Something is wrong somewhere in this practice,” Escudero said. There should be more competitions for athletes in different levels. But some NSAs seem to have slackened in their duties to conduct local tournaments, especially national open events, and just rely on the PSC projects and the Palarong Pambansa to produce athletes for them.”
This practice, according to Escudero, is also partly to blame for NSAs taking the more convenient shortcutting in recruiting Filipinos with mixed foreign bloods, especially those who have trained in schools and universities with strong sports programs abroad.
“Niloloko naman natin ang mga sarili natin kapag ganyan lang ang practice natin. And then, we talk about winning our first Olympic gold medal soon when only a few NSAs are doing their jobs in searching for potential winners among the 101 million Filipinos,” Escudero said.
“The more tournaments we have, the better for our athletes. Dahil aside from giving them experience, they also develop their maturity and confidence in facing adversities in their playing areas,” Escudero said.
Among the few NSAs with strong national open and age-group programs include athletics, golf, taekwondo, boxing, and karatedo, among others. Other NSAs lack similar programs either due to the size of active practitioners of their sport or lack of funds to administer big events.
Collegiate leagues are also a source of athletes for majority of the NSAs.
Escudero, however, noted that the PSC is doing its job well by keeping true to its mandate to promote grassroots sports.
“The programs are there. And from what we see and hear from PSC officials during budget deliberations, the structure is fairly working. We have the Batang Pinoy and the revived PNG, we have the Palarong Pambansa with the Department of Educations, but we lack activities up there. Mostly, kapag NSAs ang requests na natatanggap ng PSC ay for regional and international trainings and competitions,” Escudero said.
“What happens is, sa Fil-foreign athletes na lang nagre-rely ang ilang NSAs. And the PSC has to share in the brunt of paying for their allowances, most of the time in dollars, para lang hindi tayo mapahiya during the SEA Games at Asian Games, which are the turf of the NSAs and the Philippine Olympic Committee,” Escudero added.
