DO NOT DO UNTO OTHERS

What you would not want others to do unto you. An unsolicited advise to my friends and colleagues in the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Please stop whining about what rules and regulations Cambodia, which is hosting the next SEA Games this year, is planning to do or already decided to host this years event.

That's expected. We did the same thing to all our sister countries when we last hosted the SEA Games 2019 here in Manila.

We have so many friends in the Region and they too were complaining about how we planned the games and eventually run away with the overall.

So whats new? It's Cambodias time and they also want to run the Games their way. We presume they also want to win the overall before their own people or at least hope to end up better this year.

Especially since they don't have as much moolah as we have. I'm sure they can't afford to spend P50M for a cauldron to be used for the opening ceremony and never again.

So let it be. SEA Games are meant more for friendship than medals. My friends from SEA Games were amused when they learned we spent more than a billion pesos for Clark Air Base athletes village, Olympic size swimming pool, track and field oval, of which some facilities are now white elephants.

I remember when my friend Sen. Franklin Drilon, when he was interpellating our friend from Davao, Sen Bong Go, as to how we shall use and maintain the facilities after the games are over and he was told it would be rented.

So may we ask now if indeed the venues are rented and for how long? This way it will clear up some issues prevalent and still lingering with our sports loving people out there.

You see, when other countries are hosting the Games, they usually don't spend much for this kind of friendly games, or even build new stadiums or arenas.

Unlike in the Asian Games or the Olympics. You see, Seagames are the last in the list of ultimate challenges. You can win several gold medals in the SEA Games, but end up last in the Asian Games and not even qualify for the Olympics.

To stress my point, we enlisted more than a thousand athletes in the SEA Games we hosted here four years ago but ended up with only a dozen or a little more athletes in the Tokyo Olympics two years later.

We're lucky if end up with twenty for the next Paris Olympics next year.

And worse, we run away with the overall in 2019 Manila SEA Games only to end up in fourth place in Vietnam two years later. Our aim here is not to put down our delegation but to simply review our goals and development programs, especially in the grassroots area, although thats for the next article. Abangan.

2023-01-31T03:54:29Z dg43tfdfdgfd