Idiotic predictions

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

HERE we go again.

Like in the past, our insensitive national sports leaders are again predicting and embellishing our national team’s chances at gold medal hauls in regional meets in Southeast Asia Games. It was only in 2005 when our nation hosted the biennial games when our team hauled 113 gold medals to top the eleven countries in the  two-week tourney.

We tried five times to top our 2005 performance but our teams’ failed miserably.

We collected only 41 gold in 2007 Thailand Sea Games good for only sixth place overall, 38 gold in 2009 Laos to land fifth, 36 gold in 2011 Indonesia to place sixth again, 29 gold in 2013 Myanmar to finish seventh (our worst), and again 29 gold in 2015 Singapore finishing sixth anew badly beaten by smaller countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and most of all the city-state Singapore.

The deteriorating state of our country’s sports development is obvious yet despite this, our country’s sports top honchos are again hallucinating on making another idiotic prediction – a mega haul of 50 gold medals in the Kuala Lumpur Games slated on August 19-31.

They should let our national athletes perform first before opening their mouths but our national sports principal leaders don’t seem to learn their lessons. “Nauna ang kalesa kaysa kabayo,” as the saying goes in Filipino.

Take the cancellation of the hosting of 2019 SEAG original set to be held in Davao City, Pres. Digong’s place.  Cited as main reasons involve national security: the terrorist threat posed by Maute-ISIS and the continued financial constraint because of the projected costs of rehabilitating the devastated Marawi City, before anything else. These, in addition to the continued threats from Abu Sayaff, BIFF, NPA, and the war-on-drugs.

Hearing about the cancellation of the 2019 SEAG, Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) czar Peping Cojuangco was alarmed and was quick to ask President Duterte to reconsider saying that the national government will not spend the projected a billion pesos to host because there are private sectors willing and ready to provide financial support of at least 400 million bucks.

Fortunately, Philippine Sports Commission chair William Ramirez seconded Pres. Digong’s position and cited the unfinished task of fully and properly liquidating expenses incurred for the 2005 Games, after 12 years.

Given these issues, it’s likely that our hosting in 2019 will not really push through unless Pres. Digong changes his mind as he sometimes do. And the over-staying Cojuangco cannot do anything but to abide by that decision. Actually, the fear in the in sports sector is that if our 2019 hosting pushes through, it will just be source of another big corruption. I share that fear.

The fact remains, something is really very wrong and it needs the immediate attention of our graft-buster President Rodrigo Duterte

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. 1 PETER 5: 6

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