By Danilo P. Padua, PhD

Gymnastics excellence! That’s what Carlos Edriel Yulo had shown us during the still on-going Paris Olympics, 2024.
Congratulations to our golden boy, Carlos Edriel Yulo who made us really proud in the current Olympics. This Olympic Games is the best so far for our country in 100 years of our participation. Thanks to Yulo for making our flag fly high in the Games not only once but twice. We should also thank the first ever Philippine Olympic gold medalist ever in Hidilyn Diaz of weightlifting fame, who first proved that golden Olympic dreams could come true, thereby triggering desires of Filipino athletes to also excel in the same great conclave.
There was great jubilation in every corner of the homeland of Juan de la Cruz, and wherever corner of the world he is in.
Mr. Yulo established a lot of firsts in Philippine sports history in the world arena.
He is the first gymnast to have won any medal of color in the Olympics for the Philippines; the first Filipino to win the gymnast gold in the Olympics; the first Filipino to garner double gold in the same Olympic. He is also the first from South East Asia to win the gymnastics Olympic gold, and also the World Gymnastics Championship. And more.
With his double-gold in the same Olympics, Yulo is considered the greatest Filipino Olympian to date. He will be receiving a whooping PhP160.0 million worth of incentives from the government and private sectors-in cash and in kind, according to estimates. That’s why people are saying that he is now made for life.
Now, who will not want the same avalanche of rewards?
Because Carlos is the toast of the town at the moment, many people especially the politicians, will gravitate towards Yulo on his arrival, and even months after. One can just imagine how politicians will take every chance to be illuminated by his luster, just with photo-ops with him. Many of them will become unabashed “fans” of him while his star is shining brightly. Hopefully he will not be taxed to the point of irritation and exhaustion.
The exploits of Yulo led President Bongbong Marcos to declare more support for sports in general. That’s the trickle effect, and that should be a very welcome development
It is a direct exhortation for all those involved in sports development to come up with their relevant plans and proposals in their respective turfs.
Gymnastics is another model sports that Cordillera athletes can fully embrace and parlay to success. In the1980’s, I already witnessed student gymnasts in the Baguio-Benguet area who can fly, lightly bounce, and somersault like Carlos Yulo. Some of them were as well-built as him too.
But what happened? Honest-to-goodness development plans were not crafted, so the talents of those aspiring gymnasts went to naught. We were, in most part, the favorite whipping boys and girls even in SEA Games until Yulo arrived at the scene.
We were so enamored with basketball that sports like gymnastics were given just a fleeting side glance. Hardly any support. This time, with the lead shown by Yulo, everybody is trying to be like him. They are now greatly inspired. This must be caught by the tail.
There are a lot of young boys (and girls too) in Baguio and Benguet that are casually tumbling in open grassy spaces. They are as intrepid as Yulo. There is just a need to harness them, first into a potent bunch of potential national gymnast beaters. And maybe for the Olympics, eventually. Guidance and support are needed.
Our Elementary and High School gymnast coaches oftentimes are hard-pressed to look for a proper place and equipment to train their wards. They even shell out their own money and resources just to train their interested athletes who are found to have potential. It’s a pitiful sight for young gymnasts to train for example, on ordinary benches in schools which is dangerous.
Due to lack of incentives and support, coaches don’t have the luxury of proper training regimen for their wards. But wait when their athletes win medals. Everyone will try to grab the credit.
It’s high time for bigger schools in the Elementary and High School levels to build a gym dedicated to Gymnastics. It should be a part of their sports development plan.
I can’t recall any Filipino gymnast since the Mexico Olympics in 1968. There was none until, again, Yulo came along in the 2020/2021 Tokyo edition. In this Paris event, 3 young and beautiful Fil-Am lady gymnasts also provided added boost and inspiration to the Philippine team. Given the proper environment for gymnastics to flourish, it is not far-fetched to assume that some of our future national gymnasts will arise from the Cordillera region in the very near future.
o-o-o-o
VP Sara just declared war with the administration of PBBM. The collision course is not surprising to many.
Let us hear what many thought: According to them, it was started by FPRRD when he called the current president as addict or bangag in national TV just a few months at the start of his assumption of office; then calling him as lazy and just doing pasyal-pasyal. Not even one year in office, they added, FPRRD led a movement of few disgruntled people in asking the new president to resign. For what? For doing better than FPRRD?
The group of FPRRD kept on pressing their narrative of a bangag president. So, they resorted to mudslinging, presenting a bogus witness which was actually indicted for lying in congressional investigations, concocted a deep fake video of PBBM supposedly indulging in drugs that was eventually found to be really fake. Then came another witness who has a thoroughly wet credibility. WHOA, what a bad zarzuela? Nothing is worse than what they are doing because they are not hurting PBBM but actually the whole country in general.
They even organized a series of prayer rallies kuno, in various locations in the country, but its aim was never for the good of all but only for PBBM to resign. The rallies went on and on, even abroad, but the participants progressively dwindled from a few thousand to less than 20, yes less than twenty.
So from those alone, they thought that VP Sara’s declaration was just a matter of short time to come out in the open.
VP Sara came out with a “list of complaints” to make known her distancing from the President. To me the complaints were also directed to her as she loudly said in part: “We deserve better leaders to serve us.” If that is not considered self-indictment, I don’t know what it is. A friend blurted out: “The mind set of the VP is not configured for the presidency of the Philippines. She is not fit to become a president.”
Shall you and I believe that? Am not so sure.
What am sure of is that, the break between the two highest leaders of the land is not serving us well. There is now disunity. Whether you are from Cordillera, from NCR, from Mindanao, or anywhere else in the country, we will be eventually affected by such event. Hopefully, it is for the better. **