The Philippine Online Chronicles

With barely two months before the South East Asian (SEA) Games in Laos, a squabble has erupted anew in Philippine sports.

A bowl of controversies spilled out as officials of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines (WAP) sued Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chair Harry Angping in the Office of the Ombudsman on October 19 for graft and grave coercion.

According to WAP Chair Albert Balde, “Angping put the country in shame when he broke his promises to fund the Asian Junior Wrestling Championships (AJWC)” held in Manila last July 2009.

With this revelation, other National Sports Associations (NSA), including cycling and billiards groups, exposed Angping’s alleged “negligence” of athletes regarding their allowances and participation on international events.

Verbal promises

In an interview with this writer, WAP officials complained about Angping’s “verbal promises” to fund the AJWC through the PSC.

According to Balde, on May 25, 2009, Angping “orally pledged P5 million as the PSC’s financial sponsorship of the event” in a meeting held with Chang Kew Kim, chair of the Asian Amateur Wrestling Committee (AAWC), the governing body of amateur wrestling in Asia.

On July 1, with just a week before the AJWC, Balde added, Angping suddenly announced to WAP that the PSC “will not deliver any cash” and that PSC’s sponsorship will “come in kind,” without specifying what they planned to give in place of money.

Substandard services, expired drinks

Balde then bared a “litany of complaints” by the participating athletes of “substandard services” which included “expired sports drinks” and “defective weighing scales” provided by the PSC.

Balde also stated that the hotel accommodation of the participants “housed seven in a small hotel room.”

Also, there were no VIP cars provided for the officials and the only transportation given to all 500 plus participants are two buses,” Balde said.

According to WAP vice chair and three-time SEA Games gold medalist Marcus Valda, the Philippine wrestling team was treated more dismally as “no hotel accommodation and food” were provided to them. Valda said that WAP officials had “to dig in their own wallets to cover the expenses of the Philippine team.”

It was such a big embarrassment to us,” Valda emphasized. “Kulang na lang duraan kami ng mga participants. (What’s lacking is for the participants to spit at us out of disgust.)”

All complaints of WAP were affirmed by AAWC Chair Chang Kew Kim in an e-mail dated October 17, a hard copy of which was furnished to this writer by Balde.

Conflict of interest

WAP added that Angping hired Image Travel and Tours Corp. (ITTC) as a sponsor of the AJWC, to shoulder the travel fares and lodging of the athletes.

However, according to Valda, the said travel agency did not undergo public bidding, which is required by law when a private entity is booked for a national sporting event.

The sponsorship of ITTC is definitely a conflict of interest, as some sources revealed that it is possibly co-owned by Angping,” Valda said.

What’s worse is that ITTC collected three million pesos from WAP. The PSC has also forced us to remit all collected competition entry fees to them,” he added.

WAP, according to Balde, has not paid anything to the PSC.

“So young, so corrupt”

In an interview in DZMM’s Sports Talk, Angping denied all accusations from WAP.

Angping claimed that “the PSC organized the AJWC” and it is “WAP that is indebted to us.”

He added that “WAP has to settle its P 4.4 million debt to the PSC”

“These (WAP) officials are so young yet so corrupt,” Angping announced on air. “They will never gain the support of their athletes.”

When asked by anchor Gretchen Fullido to have a dialogue with the WAP officials on air, Angping declined. “I will answer their allegations in the proper courts, not here,” Angping said.

On the same show, WAP asserted that they organized the event and that Angping’s claim as the “organizer” is not in consonance with the law.

Under Section 11 (g) of Republic Act 6847, the PSC must “assist national (sports) associations,” while Section 13 grants the power to “conduct competitions” and “affiliate with international sports associations” solely to the NSAs.

WAP Treasurer Alvin Aguilar also alleged misappropriations of and irregularities in the tournament’s expenses sent to them by PSC, citing a video coverage which allegedly cost P200, 000, when it can be availed of for P30,000. Aguilar also mentioned an unliquidated P300, 000 “miscellaneous expense” and a P2 million hotel accommodation.

Athletes, fans protest

More accusations about Angping surfaced in a rally held in front of the PSC office last October 19. The rally was led by WAP and joined by coaches, athletes, trainees, and supporters.

In a statement distributed during the rally, the Concerned Citizens for Philippine Sports denounced Angping’s neglect of the allowances of national athletes. The group also slammed Angping’s plan to financially support only 153 out of more than 250 competing athletes in the SEA Games.

The rally was attended by Women’s World Pool Champion Rubilen Amit, who said that Angping cut her from the PSC’s payroll when she joined Puyat Sports, a known commercial stable of billiards players.

Angping dismissed the complaints as allegations from “paid rallyists who are not even athletes.”

In a Philippine Star interview, Angping promised to even raise the athletes’ allowances to P15, 000 a month with a P100, 000 gold medal bonus for the Laos SEA Games.

“Rally under one flag”

This controversy caught the attention of Senator Francis Escudero, who chairs the Upper Chamber’s Committee.

In an article at mb.com.ph, Escudero called on PSC and the athletes to “rally under one flag.”

Escudero also pointed out the PSC’s scanty budget which puts the country’s sports program in a “difficult situation.”

“Sports is not a priority under our present leadership and whoever sits in the PSC will encounter the same problems over and over again, as he will have under his neck, people seeking support, whether the PSC has money to give or none at all,” Escudero said.

Carlo Sevilla, Secretary-General of WAP, recognized Escudero’s point in an interview with this writer. However, he emphasized that “corruption in the PSC aggravates the financial problems of our sports program.”

“If the PSC, as well as the other NSAs, are corrupt-free, we can have a competitive program despite a meager budget,” Sevilla said.

Meanwhile, sports commentator Ronnie Nathanielsz suggested in DZMM’s Sports Talk to legislate a law “banning politicians” from heading the country’s sports agencies.

Sevilla seconded Nathanielsz clamor, saying that only “athletes and their coaches can understand the needs of their fellow athletes” and that “the PSC must be rid of traditional politicians who do not know of the welfare of Filipino athletes.”

Throughout recent history, there has not been a comprehensive national sports program in the Philippines. Gone, it seems, are the Golden Years of Philippine Sports, a time when the country ruled Asia's sports scene in the 1920s to the 1950s.

A major contributor to the country’s decline in sports may be the endless bickering of sports officials, coaches, and athletes instead of uniting for a systemic, programmatic, and a radical sports agenda that will ensure the full participation of the Filipino people, such as what happened recently with the PSC and the Philippine Olympic Committee.

And with WAP’s recent allegations, politics seems to have done more to aggravate the country's dismal international performance. Meanwhile, Angping’s refusal to address the issue directly with the aggrieved NSAs puts more doubt on the credibility of local sports agencies.

As such, the country’s sports scene is a microcosm of national politics in general, where division and corruption prevails. At the end of the day, Filipino sports enthusiasts lose hope of winning an Olympic gold, just like how Filipinos, in general, lose hope of a better future.

Photo: “Korean Folk wrestling” by , c/o Flickr. Some Rights Reserved.

Video: "Philippines vs Tajikistan" uploaded to Youtube.com by gbman31 (competition unknown: senior athletes).