The current national “mania” for a first Olympic gold medal was inspired by a Filipino barber. And here is how it all began.
A group of former U.P. Varsity players, led by the late entrepreneur Marcelino “Mars” Espino, concerned about the seeming exhibit of a sense of anomie by the youth during the Martial Law regime, decided to undertake a project that would inspire the young people and get them out of their sense of drift.
The group included lawyer Oscar Malinis who was our basketball coach, Chito Ponce Enrile, Nonoy Duran, Dennis Isidro, Nonoy Buncio, an Arranz whose first name I can’t recall, architect Froilan Hong, the late sportscaster Ed Picson, and we recruited banker Ed Espiritu of then MetroBank to put up the P1 million–the centerpiece of what we called, “Project: Olympic Gold.” I was the group’s secretary.
One of the members of the group (there were at least a dozen of us) related the story that while having his haircut, his barber advised that if we really wanted to win our first Olympic gold medal, a P1 million should be put up as prize money. The barber reasoned out that when, say a boxer is knocked down, if you kept shouting at him, “One million! One million! Tumayo ka, sayang ang one million!”, the boxer is sure to get up.
We undertook several projects. We managed to send Ed Picson to attend broadcasting seminars at University of Southern California, Joe Lipa for basketball coaching under Bobby Knight, and a high jumper whose name I can’t recall for training at USC. We even got Danding Cojuangco of SMB and Northern Cement to commit 1000 sacks of cement for the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.
We held a ground breaking ceremony for this edifice at the Rizal Park with the blessings of Park Administrator Doroy Valencia. We all believed that the sports hall of fame would inspire the youth to achieve excellence in sports.
The EDSA or February Revolution of 1986 put an end to the UP Varsity Club’s dream of being a force in securing the country’s first Olympic gold medal.
However, others adopted that dream as their own. And now, it has become a national “obsession” with both government and the private sector pouring millions of people’s money and private funds to make that dream a reality.
This focus, to my mind, made us ignore–if not neglect, to consider the greater and more important benefits that sports could bring to the people.
This is expressed in the vision and mission of the UN Sport for Development & Peace: Towards Achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals…”not to use sports for the creation of new sporting heroes but in its broader context for health, education, sustainable development, communication, partnership and peace.”
Here is a portion of this UN document: “Realizing the potential of sport as a tool for development and peace.
Sport is far more than a luxury or a form of entertainment. Access to and participation in sport is a human right and essential for individuals of all ages to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. Sport — from play and physical activity to organized competitive sport — has an important role in all societies. Sport is critical to a child’s development. It teaches core values such as co-operation and respect. It improves health and reduces the likelihood of disease. It is a significant economic force providing employment and contributing to local development. And, it brings individuals and communities together, bridging cultural or ethnic divides. Sport offers a cost-effective tool to meet many development and peace challenges, and help achieve the MDGs.
“The potential of sport as a tool for development and peace is yet to be fully realized. The use of sport remains outside the mainstream of thinking among United Nations agencies. While sport and play are repeatedly acknowledged as a human right, they are not always seen as a priority and have even been called the ‘forgotten right’. Sport is seen as a by-product of development, not as an engine.”
It is imperative that DepEd, CHED, Health, Local Government, the PSC and POC officials pay heed to this UN advisory. The DepEd must consider them in the crafting of the program and curricular offerings of the 17 regional high schools to implement a program of sports funded at a cost of P5,950,000, lest this will go to waste. he objectives of this program should not be solely directed to the identification and training of the athletically talented, but should likewise secure the benefits for the whole school population.
The PSC and the POC should rethink their priority focused on chasing the elusive Olympic gold medal.
The fallacy of such an undertaking can be learned from this: with all their haul of Olympic gold medals, are the Kenyans, Jamaicans and Ethiopians any better than Filipinos with regards to their statuses in people’s heath, education, social development, and peace?
