It has been a sports syndrome of the Philippines that alarmingly reoccurs whenever Olympic events are celebrated. Add the absence of the country in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. We accept defeat but we never learn. How come we find ourselves in triumph if we do not even participate?
Analogy would barely explain that a country with no snow is not capable of competing in the Winter Games, but it is a grief for those parties, like the Ice Skating Union of the Philippines, to amputate the pride of our country in the international sports arena. Amidst the fact that their training grounds are only those ice rinks in the malls, Filipino figure skaters are internationally renowned if most failed to notice. Competent, we are affirmative with that.
For the record, we had athletes namely Michael Dimalanta and Gracielle Jean Tan who attempted to join the Vancouver Games but failed to get the cut. Also not qualifying at the Winter Olympics in snowboarding is Eden Serina. Set to magnify these results, Filipino athletes are not in the state of cowardice, but being unschooled. Frail the program is because of the minute delegates; lucky if we really have that program.
A fraction in the mission statement of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is to support the specially talented athletes for high level competitions. Yes, the Philippines sent three athletes in the said games, but it is not sufficient. They did not even qualify to the main stage. It is not behind in our back that other countries do capitalize in their athletic programs, including China which germinates its children in the earliest possible time. The aim is not to emulate these countries, but to exceed them, and yet, our country is not in the mode of taking it in a serious business, but as a comic relief.
Aforesaid, the PSC is in the great season of autumn, which is not parallel to its abundant funds. Republic Act No. 9970 known as the General Appropriations Act of 2010 implies the 20% mark up of this year's budget of the PSC in comparison to its 2009 fund amounting to P319,188,000. The financial upgrade that the PSC has incurred would fabricate more its purpose to elevate the Filipino athletes towards more competitive performances. Seemingly, it is not quite visible to what had happened to the 2010 Winter Olympics. The point is, it is not the right time that the budget should be released just immediate before the due that it is needed, just before months, just before weeks, or just before days.
Worst case, it is not specifically scripted in RA 9970 that the 2010 Winter Olympics has allotted funds. Unlike in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it was supplemented with P50,000,000 for the athletes' trainings. Alone from this thread, the PSC is making the Winter Olympics in a frozen motion; sub-zero state that even a single molecule could not hardly move.
Kenya, a more dry country than Philippines, has made its race represented in the 2010 Winter Games. To think, the CIA World Factbook ranked Philippines as the 47th most economically stabled country in the year 2009, way ahead to Kenya's 86th seat. That African country raised its flag in the Games with an athlete considering that they look more 'Third World' than ours. Good to know that they are making the most of almost nothing, and bad to know for the Filipinos that we are behind them.
Since its Olympic debut in 1924, the Philippines has earned seven bronze, two silver, and gold-less; a big frost bite in the Winter Olympics having a null medal count. It is ambitious to dream for a golden prestige in the Winter Olympics given the killing truth that in Summer Olympics alone we find ourselves in the state of sports recession. But a sporting chance would be just to our athletes who specialize on sports dealing with low temperature environment. The disability of our country to have ice lands is not really a disadvantage however it will not pacify the athletic needs. Now, as the edifice of Philippine sports, it is the sole job of the PSC to push these athletes to their extremities; to enact special programs and to initiate efficient improvises.
Rotten tomatoes are what we are sending to these kinds of battle. Releasing weaponless soldiers to a bloodshed war is but a big miscalculation. Though we have the funds, but we do not have the program. The kind of program that will adapt to what we do not have -snow. If the PSC could not have a good ending, then try to have a good beginning instead.
A drought Philippines is facing the world's final frontier of sports. Filipinos should not hibernate at a global challenge like this. If we are at our utmost disadvantage, then acclimatize. It is in our instinct to follow a natural protocol: To glorify our country.
