By Joel B. Belinan
Hugging the news these recent days is the formal acquisition of the US citizenship of Chess Super Grandmaster (SGM) Wesley So who just captured the World Chess no.1 ranking. Immediately, once the news broke out and posted on several social media platforms, it went viral, and as expected the most reactions were coming from Filipino internet users here and abroad. Of course, getting most of the bashing are the Philippine Sports officials, in general, and the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) the National Sports Association for Chess in the country, in particular. What’s more interesting was the statement of SGM Wesley So that he lacked the connection in Philippine sports for the development of his career.
For the uninformed, Wesley So hails from Cavite province and was a member of the NCFP but due to the usual petty politics among those so-called Philippine sports leaders and the neglect of the government’s sports body, the Philippines Sports Commission, Wesley So decided to transfer to the US National Chess Federation. Since 2016, Wesley So represented The United States instead of his home country. He is now at the top of the world’s chess ranking beating all those who were ahead of him, many of whom he even considered his idols. Alas, this news should be a big slap to our sports officials and our government. This incident is only the latest of the blunders in our Philippine sports which is actually a reflection of this country.
Sports’ importance to a country especially like ours which has been longing for recognition should topmost. It can usually revive the morale of the whole nation that has been wary of all sorts of controversies and the negative news which is 90 percent of the content of all news platforms. In fact, sports are usually considered as a measuring yardstick of one’s state of progress. This can be shown when for the first time a country bids for the hosting of the World Olympics which when won by a country, it throws all its resources and its whole government machinery government for the preparation and ultimately the conduct of that so-called the biggest show on earth.
While to date we cannot still aspire to bid for the hosting of the World Olympic Games or even the Asian Games we could have been contented with some achievements by certain individuals like that of Wesley so had the government, not bungled and ultimately lost such once in a lifetime Chess Talent. Indeed, if things did not turn out the way things are it would be our flag on top of the World in the chess rankings, instead of the Stars and Stripes of the US.
One comment that caught my attention about the Wesley So issue states, “It’s good that Manny Pacquiao did not apply and become a US citizen” which actually could have been possible. Sports like arts can uplift the morale or the self-esteem of a community and even a country. It can be considered as some sort of a booster to the already downed spirit of the people as a whole.
Of course our national officials particularly the so-called sports leaders are very silent and maybe saying that the Wesley So issue is insignificant. Unfortunately having such attitude shows the deep-rooted mental disease of the sports officials in this country. Because actually, through the years, a long list of controversies have been happening.
For example; three years ago, the Philippine Karate Do Team training in Germany, our sports officials did not remit to them their complete stipends that were actually provided by the German Karate Federation that hosted them.
Then again just before the ASEAN games in December, 2019, a perennial ASEAN games gold medalist has been sidetracked from representing the country in that event in favor of a nephew of a ranking sports official of the NSA.
In the late 90s almost all the members of the National Judo Team who happen to be all from Baguio and Benguet were stripped of their being national Judo players. The reason was that the Judo Federation required them to stay in Manila instead of the previous arrangement to stay and train in Baguio City as all of them were still pursuing their studies. As one player said, “we have to continue and finish our studies as we cannot be National Judo Players forever and so going to Manila was not an option.” Of course, these judokas chose to stay in Baguio and continued their studies and as expected the Judo officials were very happy to put their people in the team.
In terms of caliber? Those replacements could not even last three rounds against our local guys. To date, the judo incident which actually caused the policy of requiring national athletes to stay in Manila are reasons that many Cordillera talents shy away from joining the national pool of their respective NSAs? And it should be noted that the Baguio and the Cordillera is a gold mine for combative sports talents. I don’t know why they forced athletes to stay in Manila when in fact during crucial periods of their training they usually come up to Baguio for a training camp. In fact, the National Boxing Team trains here in Baguio and are housed permanently at the Teachers Camp. This is because training at a high altitude is always advantageous to athletes.
One of the biggest problems in Philippine sports is the continued domination of non-athletes in its leadership. In most cases, those appointed are defeated politicians or the lackeys of those in power. What is frustrating is that at times there were very few former athletes who got appointed but, in most cases, they eventually got swallowed by the system, resulting in frustrated expectations.
So the usual corrupt system remains.
I could keep going on, but we ran out of space.**
