The debacle in Jakarta

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Well, it’s all over, and there is no reason for shouting. The 26th Southeast Asian Games ended Sunday with the Philippines still stuck in the 6th place in what is probably its worst showing since it entered the SEAG contests. This time it even fell below such countries as Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore, that it had beaten roundly when the games were held in our country in 2006.

Indonesia, the host country, as expected, won the championship – in the games, that is – but it was also criticized for its preparations which were described as half-baked when the games began. Nevertheless, its athletes did their best, and succeeded.

But the Philippines, for all the bravatura expressed by its sports officials before the games, did not even manage to get close to the projected gold medals, so presumptuously predicted at 70. The most we could get were 36, and those mostly from individual sports where the feat could be credited to only one athlete’s ability.

Sportswriters from the country had the most critical comments about the performance of our delegation which, rightfully, they did not focus on the players but on the sports officials who did not appear to have put their acts together, despite the fact that this was not our first participation in the SEAG, for which preparations should have been made intensively the whole year round.

There was also great sense in what a TV commentator said about the lack of interest and encouragement given the players from the country’s supposed sportsmen as well as congressmen, who were more interested in chasing after Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas, than in visiting the country’s athletes in Jakarta.

No wonder a senator commented that “Politics has destroyed sports” in this country. And a national daily described our contingent there as the “bruised, battered and shell-shocked Team Philippines”.

And their officials had the audacity to adopt a self-mocking motto like “Lakas Pinas” which both insulted themselves and the country’s name!*