Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William ‘Butch’ Ramirez recently gave the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) hierarchy a piece of his mind.
While the meeting between the PSC leader and that of the POC was cordial, Ramirez made it clear that the government agency will not hesitate to support athletes that are not even part of the national pool.
Ramirez cited the cases of Mary Joy Tabal of athletics and Marian Capadocia of tennis, top athletes not part of the current pool but active competitors overseas.
“We are obliged to help the athletes because these athletes have nowhere else to go if they are not supported by their national sports associations,” said Ramirez over the weekend.
Although the PSC has made a practice of supporting athletes who are endorsed by their respective NSAs that have the backing of the POC, Ramirez believes that has to change.
“You cannot dictate on us who to support and not to support,” stressed Ramirez.
“Besides, when they compete overseas, which country do they represent? They represent our country, the Philippines,” said Ramirez.
Tabal was released by the Patafa following her forgettable showing in the 2016 Rio Olympics while Capadocia was dumped by the Philta owing to differences between her parents and officials.
At the same time, Ramirez is also urging that the NSAs manage their finances well as the PSC is determined to get to the bottom of their liquidation woes.
Many NSA leaders complain that they only inherited the problems of the previous administrations.
But PSC Legal Division chief Carlo Abarquez countered that such cannot be accepted as an excuse.
“When they took over the NSA, they also assumed responsibility (of its finances),” said Abarquez.
Still, Ramirez is giving the NSAs some sort of leeway.
“What I want the NSAs to do is to report to us so we will know who to go after if they tell us that they could no longer recover and liquidate funds that were released many years ago.”
Ramirez added: “So we will know who to look for and possibly file cases.”
