Is there hope for an Olympic gold?

By ATTY. DODO DULAY

For the fourth straight Olympics, our athletes in London are coming home without any medal. Described by many as the country’s second-worst performance after Beijing four years ago, no one from Team Philippines survived past the qualifying heats. This despite the billions of pesos funneled by the government into so-called “national sports associations” (NSAs) the past several decades. And the sad reality is that the country’s medal drought is likely to continue unless and until the government takes over the reins of sports development.

While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) frowns on government “interference” in sports, there are many countries with a government-backed sports machine. China, for instance, has a huge and sophisticated government sports apparatus that identifies promising young athletes through a network of coaches. In 2001, the Chinese government launched Project 119, so named because it targeted 119 medals in water sports and athletics, pumping billions of dollars into its 3,000-odd sports academies to groom some 200,000 children into champions. Such a fixation on winning medals, much like the Soviet bloc of the past, has seen China’s rise as a sports power.

In contrast, the Philippines relies solely on NSAs to produce world-class athletes. That’s because the International Olympic Commitee vested in these sports associations, the exclusive authority to determine who can join and represent the country in the Olympics and other international competitions. NSAs are accredited by International Sports Federations (ISFs) – the international governing body for their particular sport – and by the National Olympic Committee in their respective countries in order to be officially-recognized. Presently, there can only be one NSA per sport in every country.

Unfortunately, this monopoly power wielded by NSAs has also doomed our chances for an Olympic gold. Like fiefdoms in feudal times, our NSAs are riddled with controversy and strife. In recent years, many NSAs have been wracked by scandals involving corruption, favoritism, incompetent coaches, poor living conditions, delayed food allowances, antiquated training equipment, illegal elections and bogus boards. While NSAs have been insatiable beneficiaries of government largesse, very few have actually produced athletes of international caliber.

It’s time our government takes a cue from China. Instead of plowing money into non-performing NSAs, the Aquino administration would be better off using it to create and develop an honest-to-goodness sports infrastructure for a limited number of sports where agility rather than height is an advantage.

Moreover, the government can adopt a low-hanging fruit strategy by honing in on certain sports like women’s archery, shooting and weightlifting, where the global talent pool isn’t as deep and other athletes don’t receive substantial financial support.

I’m sure the Aquino administration can very well “persuade” NSAs to cooperate with such a strategy. That is, if we ever hope to see a Filipino win an Olympic gold in our lifetime.

Setting the bar

The cultivation of some 300,000 mangrove trees along the Marilao-Meycauayan-Obando River System (MMORS) is a model initiative that should be replicated by environmentalists to help revive and clean up our polluted rivers and waterways around the country.

The mangrove tree-planting project, led by DENR Secretary Ramon Paje, is the first serious effort undertaken by government in recent memory to rehabilitate the MMORS which has been listed by the New York-based think tank, Blacksmith Institute, as among the world’s dirtiest rivers.

The mangrove trees, donated by Ecoshield Development Corportion from its tree nursery in Barangay Salambao, Obando, Bulacan, will help filter and purify the waters of the MMORS by absorbing impurities and harmful heavy metals. These so-called “walking trees” will also aid in reversing the soil erosion and the siltation in the river that has been a major cause of flooding in the Bulacan area.

The recent deluge in the aftermath of typhoon “Gener” that inundated many towns and cities in Metro Manila and nearby provinces should serve as a wake-up call for the immediate cleanup of our silted and polluted rivers and tributaries.

What’s heartening though is that people like Bulacan Governor Wihelmino Sy-Alavarado, Obando Mayor Orencio Gabriel and business tycoon/philanthropist Ambassador Antonio Cabangon Chua have jumped the gun on everyone by pooling their meager resources to help “resuscitate” lifeless rivers like the MMORS. In addition to the two trash boats that he pledged to donate to the cleanup project, Cabangon-Chua, owner of Ecoshield, has also committed to dedicate 37 percent of his company’s flood-proof and state-of-the-art sanitary landfill also in Obando, Bulacan – the first ever in Central Luzon – to accommodate the toxic river waste and garbage to be collected from all of Bulacan’s coastal towns.

The all-out effort of private sector outfits like Ecoshield to help revive the MMORS will truly and positively impact the environment and our communities. But given the cleanup’s immense cost, isn’t it time so-called environmental groups start taking up the cudgels, too?