Reality check

Ricky Vargas, president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), this week was reported to have said that weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz and triathlete Nikko Huelgas had called for an end to politics in sports.

No, Virginia, you can tell Diaz and Huelgas that it would not end, at least not in their lifetime if that was even remotely possible, because politics, or “activities concerned with seeking power, status, etc,” is and will be here to stay until she could no longer lift 10 pounds and he could no longer run 10 meters.

Philippine sports, and their global counterpart, are apparently ruled by politicians and other civilians trying to stay as “non-political” as possible if their life depended on it.

A change in the POC leadership, for example, was effected by court-ordered elections last year, with the protagonists being the former congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco and Vargas, who now appears to be learning to deal with the headache that is the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games that the Philippines will be hosting in November-December this year.

The past week or two, congressman Prospero Pichay raised questions about the legitimacy of the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc).

Also this week, order was apparently restored in the interest of the country’s successful hosting of this year’s regional sports extravaganza.

The Phisgoc is to be headed by former senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who incidentally was first choice for the job, until Pichay questioned how the organizing committee was formed in the first place months after the changing of the guard at the POC..

Cayetano, also incidentally, is running for Congress, seeking to represent the lone district of Taguig City in Metro Manila.

How the former senator would handle the situation where he is supposed to be full-time Phisgoc chief, on one hand, and politician, on the other, he had better explain to the POC or the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), which has control of the “funding primarily for the training of [Filipino] athletes [who will take part in the Manila SEA Games].”

Meanwhile, the Phisgoc has “control” of the “staging of the SEA Games, including production, marketing and media.”

Also, Cayetano is “concerned about the event and will leave nothing to chance in making sure [the Philippine] hosting is a success.”

The question now is who would take over if he won in the race to Congress on May 13, that is if he would resign from the Phisgoc.

So, you see, Virginia, it is always possible for anything to take the backseat to politics, SEA Games or no SEA Games.

If we go by Vargas saying, “We’re delayed in the training of our athletes but we’re trying to make do with less than optimal conditions,” then the last thing the nation would want to see is Philippine authorities blaming each other’s “politicking” if the country’s hosting chores were a dismal flop.

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