The subject of this column is sports, an important component of the education and formation of young people.
With exactly 437 days in the countdown to the local elections on May 13, 2013, we ask: “What are our local government officials doing for children and youth sports in the light of their election campaign promise to consider sports as a priority?”
As of Nov. 28, 2011, the Amateur Sports Competitiveness Committee, chaired by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, is the new name of the Senate body responsible for sports affairs in our country.
As committee chair, Senator Trillanes deemed it appropriate to file Senate Bill No. 3092, or The Department of Sports Act of 2012, which appears to have mustered the support necessary to hurdle the first reading. This bill aims to replace RA No. 6847 which created the Philippine Sports Commission. There have been several similar bills in the past and Senate Bill No. 3092 is a consolidation of 11 similar bills.
I had emailed Senator Trillanes and other members of the Philippine Senate regarding my thoughts on the creation of the proposed sports department.
Dear Honorable Senators:
As a student of Philippine sports for over 50 years, allow me please to comment on the Bill calling for the creation of a Department of Sports which, to my mind, will only create another bureaucracy that will fail. Consider the following:
1. The creation of a Department of National Defense or a Philippine National Police is possible because there is the Philippine Military Academy which prepares leaders to man the department. There is no such entity for sports in the Philippines.
2. a) The Philippine Sports Commission, in its over 15 years of existence, could not create regional offices, not because there were no plantilla positions for regional heads but, because of the absence of qualified personnel to head the offices;
b) There’s not a single person in the CHED Central office who has the training, background, and experience to act on matters concerning collegiate Physical Education and Sports, thus, it does not have policies and guidelines governing college PE and Sports except those formulated in the early 1990s prior to the creation of CHED. Thus, queries on matters pertaining to PE and collegiate sports are not attended to. Yet, tertiary PE is a required subject that students must take for four semesters.
c) Check likewise the situation in the regional CHED offices and the situation is the same.
d) There is likewise a lack of qualified personnel to provide policies and guidance in PE and School Sports program of the DepEd. The credentials of those in-charge of this program are wanting in training, background, and experience. The person in-charge at one time of the DepEd school sports didn’t have the credentials and experience for such a serious responsibility. The same is the case in the regional offices where those in-charge of PE and school sports are deficient in professional preparation.
e) The same sad situation prevails in the University of the Philippines and its College of Human Kinetics. This college is over 35 years old, and has not produced a single PhD graduate. Its current faculty reflects the same sad situation of inadequate professional training and experience. Those having doctorate degrees are locally trained, without the benefit of foreign education. And worse, its graduates prefer to work in private fitness and wellness clubs than teach in the schools.
f) This same lack of professionals in the field of PE and sports is the reason why no sports academy has been setup all these years.
So I repeat: Would it have been possible to have a Department of National Defense without a PMA, a Department of Health without colleges of medicine, a Department of Public Works & Highways without engineering colleges, or a Department of Education without teacher-training institutions like the Philippine National University?
Would it be feasible to have a Department of Sports without a training center for sports personnel and specialists?
In short, the problem that will be faced in the creation of a Department of Sports is the lack of qualified personnel to staff and man the institution. A case in point is the national sports associations themselves. Check the background of its officials and you will see the validity of my opinion.
What then is the solution? The first priority is to create a training center for sports manpower, a National College of Sports, to be attended by bright young sports scholars, taught by the few available Filipino experts around, and most of all, by foreign professors and specialists from other countries who do not necessarily have to be invited to come to the country but could conduct classes online. Let’s invest on a training center which could provide education through distance learning and virtual classrooms.
We have neglected to provide professional training opportunities for sports leaders and manpower, and we are now paying dearly for this mistake.
Lydia de Vega is now employed in Singapore instead of teaching in a Philippine sports institution. It took Lydia 12 years to finish her bachelor’s degree in PE from FEU. Elma Muros never finished her studies at FEU which could prevent her from securing professional employment in the government. Seven-time SEAG javelin gold medalist Erlinda Lavandia suffered the same fate — all because we didn’t have the training center for these potential teachers and leaders in sports.
