Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — “The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), I’ve always said, don’t do their job well.”
Those were the words of Sen. Pia Cayetano at the launch of the Philippine Football Federation’s Women’s Cup on Wednesday (August 5) when asked if the government should do more for sports.
“I don’t criticize unless it’s time to criticize,” said the senator. “PSC and POC are way overdue for being responsible for the mismanagement of sports in this country.”
Read: Philippine sports far from ‘Gintong Alay’ days
The current state of Philippine sports was thrust into the spotlight in the recently concluded South East Asian (SEA) Games in Singapore.
There was a total of 402 gold medals to play for, and before the games, chef-de-mission of the Philippine contingent, Julian Camacho, said that he was expecting an estimate of 45 to 50 gold medals for the Filipinos.
The Philippines sent out 466 in the 2015 edition of the SEA Games, more than doubling the 210 sent to Myanmar in 2013.
Camacho also added that the goal was to exceed the 41 gold medals earned by the country in the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand.
Unfortunately for the Philippine contingent, things didn’t go as Camacho had hoped.
The Philippines picked up 29 gold, 36 silver, and 66 bronze medals on the way to a sixth place finish in the 2015 edition of the SEA Games.
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Read: SEA Games: Did the Philippines do better?
The Philippines equaled their gold medal tally in 2013, earning only sixth place in the tournament.
“The showing in the past SEA games is more than proof that change is needed,” said Cayetano.
The senator added that the trend of poor results has gone on too long in not just the SEA Games but other international tiffs.
“Wala naman problema yung one season of poor performance, but we’ve had season after season after season, tumunda na yung mga youth wala pa naman nagbago.”
Despite sending 466 athletes to the 2015 SEA Games, the Philippines accumulated only 29 gold medals to post a paltry ratio of 6.22 when comparing the amount of gold medals won and number of athletes in the delegation. It is the lowest ratio since 2007, when the Philippines sent 620 competitors and only won 41 gold medals for a ratio of 6.61.
“It just gets worse,” said the senator. “The figures, the data, the performance, speaks for itself.”
