‘Butch’ vs ‘Butch’: Unite now, fight later
Credit to Author: ROMY P. MARIÑAS| Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2019 16:30:52 +0000
All seems to be not quiet in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games front.
The noise is coming from two apparently warring camps that we would like to concede are as proudly patriotic as the rest of the Filipinos are in the Philippines having been selected to host the 30th SEA Games in various venues in the country in November this year.
There is the group of Rep. Prospero “Butch” Pichay of Surigao del Sur that is said to be allied with Jose “Peping” Cojuangco, former president of the Philippine Olympic Committee POC), and there is that of William “Butch” Ramirez, chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), whose mandate supposedly emanates from President Rodrigo Duterte himself.
Ramirez won over Cojuangco in bitterly contested, court-ordered elections in 2018 and the bad blood between them has not dried up.
The two groups seemed oblivious that they are practically running out of time where preparations for the 2019 edition of the biennial event are concerned, with the Philippine hosting job a little more than eight months away, and yet the Pichay and Ramirez camps are trading barbs on what each other’s supposed weaknesses (strengths don’t count, apparently) are.
According to a report, Ramirez, for instance, has opted to pull rank by saying the President would fully support him despite what is perceived as a pet project that is the regional athletic showcase gone awry: “My boss here is the President. If they can’t do anything about it, then we will take charge because I am under the instruction of the President and the Executive Secretary [Salvador Medialdea].”
Pichay had taken Ramirez to task for appointing the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Committee (Phisgoc) as the hermano mayor of the November joust, apparently citing a notice from the Commission on Audit, which inquired if there was a POC board resolution or a memorandum of agreement designating Phisgoc as punong abala of the games.
In the same report, the congressman, a member of the Executive Council of the POC and head of the country’s chess federation, said, “As far as the POC is concerned, we have not recognized [the Phisgoc],” which ‘is not authorized to enter into contracts” involving the 30th SEA Games.
We suggest that Ramirez and Pichay get their act together, lest they embarrass themselves, the country and its millions of sport fans and President Duterte, among other stakeholders, who obviously want all parties to this year’s SEA Games to walk the talk and put the people’s money where their mouths are (P5 billion reportedly handed over to the PSC to spend on the awaited sports extravaganza this side of Asia).
“Butch” and “Butch” should not give the impression that each of them just wants to be the savior of the games, the apparent reason why they have seemed to not think of a win-win scenario that would inspire the Filipino athletes taking part in the 30th Southeast Asian Games to run faster or jump higher.
Of course, the two gentlemen could bask in the glory of the Philippines potentially crowning itself as the “overall” champion of the 30th Southeast Asian Games (the International Olympic Committee, which has sanctioned the event, frowns on such practice of self-promotion).
That would not happen if the Vargas and Pichay camps preferred to slug it out, instead of finding a common ground to make the games, okay, a legacy that they are apparently after, and there is nothing wrong with that, but not at the expense of the other or of the nation itself.
They share a name, so why can’t they share a vision, a purpose?
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