My Two Cent thoughts on POC’s move to downgrade Dragon Boating

By Ma. Annabelle C. Tario

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation (PCKF) persistently claim that IDBF has been put under the authority of the International Canoe Federation (ICF) which leaves PDBF without an international federation. However, the question whether the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF) is a legitimate National Sports Association (NSA) is non-debatable.

The General Assembly of International Sports Federations (GAISF) now known as SportAccord, has recognized dragon boating as distinct from canoe and kayak and also confirmed the authority of the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) over the sport. Furthermore, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) recognizes the Asian Dragon Boat Federation (ADBF) as having responsibility for Dragon Boat Sport in Asia and that Dragon Boating organised by the ADBF and conducted under IDBF Rules of Racing, provided technical and logistical assistance in the 2008 Bali Beach Games and the 2010 Asian Games. PDBF is a Full-Member of IDBF and ADBF. Thus, the claim that PDBF is not affiliated with an international federation is obviously without basis. POC should properly examine the facts before coming up with an official announcement on the news.

Simon Toulson, Claudio Schermi, José Perurena Lòpez, Mike Haslam

The ICF President, Jose Perurena and the IDBF Executive President Mike Haslam met in Lausanne Switzerland on 12th May 2009.  They were accompanied by Simon Toulson, the ICF Secretary General and the IDBF Vice President Claudio Schermi.

Wez Jizhong, the Honorary Secretary General of the Chinese Olympic Committee, stated in the GAISF 2007 General Assembly that dragon boating had its origins in China and that it had over 2000 years of history and IDBF had been established prior to the creation of any dragon boat committee within the ICF. Hence, Dragon Boat is not separated from canoeing, since the two sports had never been together. Mr. Dapeng, VP of the IAAF (athletics) further supported the view that sports linked with tradition and culture, such as dragon boat, should be preserved and developed. Mr. Dapeng felt that it would be more in the interest of the sport to be governed by this specific body, which would be more focused on the dragon boat sport[1].

2009 World Dragon Boat Championships, Prague, Czech Republic

(scene from the stands)

200 meters Mixed World Champions, Philippines also holds the WR in the 200 m. Premeire Open

Dragon boat racing in the Philippines would not have been popular if not for the relentless effort of PDBF. It had continuously promoted the sport, holding quarterly regattas; supporting affiliate members in organizing international races (Boracay International & Camarines Sur International Dragon Boat Races), seminars, corporate team building activities, and clinics.

I do not believe that this sport would have been popular and as progressive in the Philippines if it had been under PCKF. Their record had not shown much improvement for the past years and one would think that they will focus their energy on improving their athletes’ performance and the promotion of their sport.   Instead, they are busy trying to take over what is not theirs to begin with.   Canoeing started much later than dragon boat in the Philippines. Majority of their 1^st batch National Team Members came from the dragon boat sport, including their current President who managed a club team prior to organizing and managing PCKF. Thus, canoe kayak in the Philippines was introduced much later than dragon boating, in fact, under the auspices of the Amateur Rowing Association of the Philippines (ARAP), dragon boating was an existent and an established sport in the country.

WORLD CHAMPIONS & the World's fastest 

The basic issue is whether who will control the sport of dragon boat racing in the Philippines. And this issue is an aftermath of the POC polls, in view of the fact that PDBF is identified with the opposition. POC’s assertion that dragon boating is a discipline of canoe is ethically dubious and ill-presumed. They are exhausting their efforts to downgrade PDBF which had brought so much honour to our country. Why is that? Am I wrong to presume this is all brought about by politics? Or would POC yet again, claim that they are simply following the rules? What rules?

Clearly, POC is in a time constraint to push for the downgrading of dragon boating. POC election is coming up in the year 2012, and obviously, PDBF’s choice still stands. POC, being the sports leader of our country should fully support an NSA that consistently performs and fulfils the criteria and conditions laid upon them instead of malign their efforts in bringing this sport towards a better ground.  Our dragon boat community should come together to resist in assisting their attempts to take dragon boat down. Using the words of a fellow (international) coach, I strongly believe that as a matter of principle, the PCKF should back off its attempts to take over the sport.  As a matter of honour and loyalty, paddlers, coaches and teams should not support POC’s suspect motive.  And as a matter of patriotism and a true sense of ‘Olympism’, POC leaders should put flag and country over themselves and their politics.  I still have hope and will continue to hope for a better future for this sport that is very close to my heart.

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[1] Minutes of the GAISF General Assembly 2007, Agenda Item 15: New Membership Applications; 15.2 Candidate to Member Status; c) IDBF – International Dragon Boat Federation

PH AND DRAGON BOAT ATHLETES ROBBED OF GOLD MEDALS AND SELF-ESTEEM

     

by Leonardo Q. Montemayor*

Swift Racing ad - makers of Dragon boats based in China, used at the 16th Asian Games, congratulates the Philippine Dragon Boat Crew for setting the WORLD'S FASTEST TIME in the 200m! (Published in the World Dragon Boat magazine no. 11, summer 2010)

The Philippine National Dragon Boat teams are world class.  Our men’s and mixed (12 men, 8 women) teams  posted  world records in their respective 200-meter races  at the 2009 World Dragon Boat Championships  in Prague, Czech Republic.  Currently, they are regarded as the fastest in the world.  At the 2008 Asian Dragon Boat Championships in Penang, Malaysaia , we won  gold medals in the women’s 500-meter and the 200-meter mixed (6 men, 4 women) premier events. 

Before the Asian Games dragon boat competitions in Guangzhou, China last November 18, the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF), the International Dragon Boat Federation, and other followers of the sport locally and in Asia all exuded optimism about our medal prospects. 

Unfortunately, on the eve of the Asiad, the pettiness and short sightedness of Philippine sports leaders deprived the country of at least two gold medals and a silver.

Based on their times at the  qualifying trials held in La Mesa Dam, Quezon City last October 11^th, our  women’s team would have beaten China for gold in the 500- and 250 meter- races, and would have secured a silver in the 1,000 meters.  Moreover, since our teams were still peaking for the Asiad races 36 days away,  the PDBF projected that the women could win the gold in the 1,000 meters; while the men could get a gold, a silver and a bronze.

     

Unfortunately, the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), which determines which athletes can join the Asian Games, eliminated our highly rated squads.   The POC board’s decision relied SOLELY on Col. Jeff Tamayo (ret.), its chief representative at the trials. 

     

Reporting to the POC barely 24 hours after the trials, Tamayo claimed – without any substantiation – that “our paddlers were super men and women, or were on SUPER  STEROIDS”.  (What an irresponsible and scurrilous thing for a former military officer to say against dedicated young  athletes, mostly serving in the military, police or coast guard!)    He also accused PDBF officials of unethical conduct in submitting slow reference times for the 1,000-meter trials.  (That both teams met the qualifying times for 200 and 500 meters was unquestioned.)   And yet, it was up to Tamayo and the POC to validate and approve the final benchmark times BEFORE the actual trials.  Furthermore, the POC could easily have ordered  a second round of time trials to resolve any pending issues.

     

Inexplicably, on October 15^th, without giving PDBF officers and athletes a chance to reply, the POC board adopted Tamayo’s report in full.   Our paddlers learned of their ouster from the Asian Games only through the media.  POC Chairman Monico Puentebella  made the unfounded statement that “the time trial results reflected that our dragon boat teams are not in the best of shape for the Asian Games considering the quality of the competition”.  Until today, the PDBF, a POC member-association, has not received a formal written communication from the POC concerning the teams’ exclusion.

   

Ater practicing three times daily, six days a week, over the last six months, what sins did our paddlers  commit to deserve this kind of treatment?

As if to rebut  the POC’s decision through actual performance, the National Women’s  Team won all of its events at the First Camarines Sur International Dragon Boat Festival on October 16^th-17^th.  They even  beat the highly rated Camarines Sur and Philippine Navy’s Fleet Marine teams, two-thirds of whose members were men!  (Governor Elray Villafuerte has joined basketball leader Noli Eala and sports analyst Boyet Sison as among the team’s avid supporters who have personally witnessed their exploits.)

     

Perhaps to make up for its indefensible actions, on October 27^th,  Puentebella and two POC board members met with the dragon boat athletes, provided that the PDBF officials and coaches were kept in the dark about it.   Puentebella reiterated the POC’s  decision against  the teams’   participation in Guangzhou.  He blamed  PDBF officials for gravely misrepresenting the time references during the qualifying trials. 

     

At the meeting, our athletes were shocked when the POC board members  encouraged  them to change their PDBF officers and to transfer to other sports , where the POC would support them!   Later, they would read Col. Tamayo’s report, which proclaims loftily that the “NOC (National Olympic Committee) IS THE KEEPER OF THE HIGHEST IDEALS OF FAIR PLAY” and “OLYMPISM”.  Is it in keeping with Olympic ideals when top POC officials prod our athletes to subvert their national sports association by withdrawing  support for their  leaders  and abandoning  their chosen sport?

     

After  Puentebella gave the athletes  a copy of Tamayo’s report,  the PDBF sent its point-by-point response.   

To his credit, POC Technical and Rules Committee Chairman Go Teng Kok backed the PDBF’s appeal for reconsideration.   Unfortunately, during its November 3^rd meeting, the POC board disallowed any review or investigation of the Tamayo report.

     

Our dragon boat athletes have been robbed of their medals and their reputations and self-esteem.  They have also been unjustly deprived  of several million pesos, to which they would have been entitled  under the Sports Benefits and Incentives Act of 2001 (Republic Act No. 9064).   As most of them come from big families in remote provinces, these prizes would have helped their loved ones greatly, especially during this season of sharing.

     

Our nation, badly in need of  unity and inspiration without which sustained progress cannot be attained, has likewise lost much in this sorry episode of our sports history.  Two gold medals from our paddlers would have enabled us to surpass our gold medal harvest in the Doha Asiad and energized Filipinos to strive harder to achieve excellence in sports and other areas of common endeavor.  (And POC Chief of Mission Joey Romasanta would have been spared the ordeal of prettifying our debacle in Guangzhou with athletes-to-medal RATIO-nalizations.)

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*President, Federation of Free Farmers and ABA Party-List.  Mr. Montemayor was Agriculture Secretay in 2001-02 and Party-List Representative in the 14^th Congress.  

    

     

Did Politics play its hand in the non-inclusion of the Dragon Boat Team in the Asiad?

"The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-men; and no one who has the power of granting can refuse it without guilt" Walter Scott

What had happened to the promise that we will surpass the previous ranking in the ASIAD? After the recently concluded 16^th Asian Games in Guangzhou, Philippines ranked 19^th, and our gold medal output was third worst since 1951. Francis Ochoa of Inquirer wrote “Chief De Mission Joey Romasanta refused to label the PH participation here a bust, saying they improved the medal-to-athlete ratio from the Qatar Asiad.” To most, this sounds like a lame excuse, to others “mabanggong palusot”; to me their words are full of crap. POC mixed their words to mask their failures. These sports officials should be reminded that it is the gold medal output that counts.  Instead of owning up to their failures they play with words.

The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) is our window to the world. It is naturally an object of interest to many.  Conflicts in the past between POC, PSC and the NSAs often times involve money, and the struggle for power inside the POC and NSAs was very intense. When PNoy was elected as President of the Republic, I knew POC President Cojuanco (our President’s uncle) will be calling the shots from then on. I had a hunch that it won’t be smooth sailing for our NSA but I never imagined we’ll be running against a brick wall. Let me explain further, our NSA supported Art Macapagal, who rivalled Conjuanco’s candidacy in the 2009 POC election. POC and PSC’s relationship hits rock bottom during Cong. Harry Angping’s Chairmanship. Cong. Angping supported Art Macapagal and the Dragon Boat National Team and I do believe that he supports those who merit support. Since POC membership draws its funding from PSC, it was obvious that POC had to get rid of Cong. Angping. Political bickering and internal squabbles between POC and PSC reached to an unprecedented height. And so, our NSA, the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF) and POC had a falling out, for whatever reason beyond the POC election, I do not know and I do not really care as long as they fulfil their tasks and that their motivation behind their struggle is for the progress of the sport. I ignorantly paid no attention to the politics; instead I was rigidly training my athletes to reach their peak.

So it seems, that part of the problem lies on the politics in sports. Is politics good or bad? Politics is bad when it is used as a tool towards the advancement of one’s own personal agendas, that’s destructive politics. Depends on how we use it and what our motivations are. Politics is now defined as “who gets what, when and how”. And that kind of politics steered us towards where we are now in the Asian ranking. I used to see the world with rose coloured glasses until it slapped me right on the face when POC Board members decided not to let the dragon boat national team represent in the 16^th ASIAD. In one of the 1^st Friday mass I attended, a POC official stated that “kayong mga atleta ang boss namin” and I believed it then. I used to believe that if we work hard, sacrifice, do our part to reach our goal and confidently state that we will not only medal in the ASIAD but will win the gold, they will not hesitate in supporting us to represent the country. Come Asian Games, the team became disheartened by the fact that the choice of some “qualified” athletes to represent the Philippines was compromised against the best interest of the Filipino people. I cannot put into words the anger I felt for them. The trust dissolved with the hope of ever regaining the same optimism I had. Is Philippine sport doomed to possibly regress than progress? It's not just possible, it's a sick reality.