Victory for Pacquiao

Victory for Pacquiao

For several hours yesterday, lawless elements took a break, the military unilaterally observed an informal truce and politicians paused from their endless brawls as Filipinos, in a rare show of unity, rooted for one of the nation’s own. It seemed for some moments that the nation was in for a big disappointment, as the prospect of a draw loomed in the match between boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao and Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez. But in the end the judges, by a split decision, gave the World Boxing Council superfeatherweight crown to Pacquiao.

Several police commands happily reported zero crime rates throughout the match, broadcast live from Las Vegas. For the Filipino, Pacquiao has come to symbolize rare achievement in sports, a field where the nation is sorely lacking in international recognition.

Later this year the Olympic Games will be held in Beijing. The Games are a reminder of what the Philippines has not yet achieved: the highest honor in the world of sports, an Olympic gold medal. Pacquiao’s many feats show what is needed to excel in sports: disciplined development of natural talent, adequate facilities for rigorous training, and sufficient support from both the government and interested parties in the private sector.

Proper training in athletics, which ideally should start at a young age, does not come cheap. Many promising athletes are from poor families, and development of their athletic skills is often set aside because of the demands of day-to-day survival. Often, Filipino athletes who excel in regional games are members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which has a special program for personnel with sports potential. Military discipline no doubt helps in turning these athletes into winners. But budding athletes who are too young for the AFP must look elsewhere for support in developing their skills. The nation’s jubilation over Pacquiao’s latest victory should encourage concerned sectors to provide that kind of support.

Champions

Champions

We congratulate our group of six boxers for demonstrating once again that our country is a force to be reckoned with in the lower weight classes of international boxing by winning the Boxing World Cup.

Together with the string of victories that Manny Pacquiao has been enjoying, the triumph of the Filipino boxers can be expected to trigger greater interest in boxing both as a professional and an amateur sport. Many impoverished youths will see boxing as a ticket out of the mire of poverty.

But the development of boxing should not be made at the expense of other sports in which Filipinos could excel. Baseball was one sport in which Filipinos excelled before World War II. But after Liberation, because of the heavy American influence, basketball became the most popular sport among the masses. Filipinos seem to forget that because they are a race of short people, they cannot excel at basketball, in which Caucasian giants enjoy a natural advantage. In the recent Fiba Asia Championships, for instance, not even the addition of tall Filipino-Americans to the Philippine team could win it a slot in the finals.

Soccer, the truly international sport, is another game at which Filipinos, with their speed, natural agility and balletic grace, can excel. But it is played mostly only in the provinces and as a spectator sport it draws big crowds to movie houses and sports restaurants only during the biennial World Cup. Perhaps big corporations can help popularize soccer, and revive interest in baseball by sponsoring teams.

Boxing, often called “the manly art of self-defense,” will always be seen as the poor man’s ticket to riches. Because of its violent nature (many boxers have died as a result of ring injuries) and its identification with gambling, boxing has had a controversial history. There have been periodic calls for outlawing the sport, but especially in a poor country like the Philippines, such calls cannot succeed. Meanwhile, the best that can be done would be to ensure that boxers are given enough protection in the ring and that those who are retired are assured of some means of livelihood. Many boxers have been a source of national pride but some of them have been reduced to pathetic figures by penury. They should be accorded recognition not only when they bring honor to the country, but also given support in their twilight years.

Extreme weather

The world appears to be in for a long period of extreme weather, if recent reports are to be our gauge. More than 25 million people have been affected across South Asia by massive flooding. Since the start of the monsoon in June, at least 1,120 people have been killed and 18 million affected in India. In Bangladesh, abut 250 have been killed and around 8 million stranded or displaced.

Heavy rains have doused southern China, and landslides have killed 120 people and floods have displaced 14 million people. England and Wales had their wettest May and June since 1776 and suffered $6 billion in damage from extensive flooding. Germany suffered its driest April and its wettest May since 1901. All over the world—Mozambique, Uruguay, the reports are the same: extreme weather events have been taking place.

In the Philippines we are witness to the same phenomenon of weather being turned upside down, of having a wet dry season and a dry rainy season. At one point, the situation became so alarming that the Catholic Church called for what could be the modern-day equivalent of the tribal “rain dance”: the Oratio Imperata ad Petendam Pluvium (an obligatory prayer pleading for rain). And then a storm or two brushed the northern tip of the country, bringing much needed rains that raised the water levels in dams that supply much of the water for Luzon.

While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause world temperatures to rise, the World Meteorological Organization says it is impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring. But it is best to be prepared for extreme weather occurrences. We cannot let our guard down; for instance, we still have to conserve water and prepare for the possibility that the rivers and lakes will dry up. And as a long-term measure, carry out in earnest, among other things, a project to plant 20 million trees that will help retain water and at the same time produce more life-giving oxygen.

College basketball in foul trouble

College basketball in foul trouble

Last week the National Bureau of Investigation arrested the star guard of the College of Saint Benilde basketball team on allegations that he fixed at least one game he played. The NBI said it acted on a complaint filed against the player, Paolo Orbeta, by his classmate who bet on the game after Orbeta guaranteed he would win. When the classmate didn’t pay up, the player and some of his companions allegedly threatened him with bodily harm.

Saint Benilde promptly announced it was suspending Orbeta while the case is being investigated. The NCAA, the league to which Saint Benilde belongs, was equally quick to pronounce the incident as an isolated one. “The NCAA has been very vigilant in terms of monitoring any forms of illegal gambling as evidenced by working closely with NBI since the 81st season. This season [the 83rd] has been very quiet and an incident like this is purely an isolated case allegedly involving an individual,” one top official of the league said.

The official may be whistled for jumping the gun. It is too early to conclude that the Orbeta case is a rare exception. Or if Orbeta was fixing games on his own. The NBI has long had its eye on a highly organized syndicate running high-stakes, illegal sports betting. It just could not get hold of hard evidence to bust the group.

Sports has always been a rich hunting ground for criminal syndicates. Even professional leagues are not immune. A referee of the National Basketball Association is under federal investigation over suspicions that he had bet on games he officiated and agreed to influence the winning margins. The NBA commissioner, David Stern, described the referee as a “top-tier official” and intimated that he may have links with the Mafia.

In the early 1970s, several marquee players of Crispa, one of the country’s long-reigning basketball dynasties, were implicated in game-fixing and were invited for questioning by the military. No charges were filed, but the incident cast the players under a heavy cloud of suspicion.

As the shadow of last week’s scandal spread, the Games and Amusements Board chairman, Eric Buhain, acknowledged that game-fixing and illegal gambling did bedevil the Philippine Basketball Association in the past, but added that the pro league has licked the problem. “We didn’t discount the possibility that game-fixing and illegal gambling exist in professional sports, but management control and vigilance in informing the players, officials and even the top-level executives made things easier for the GAB to control or even eradicate the problem,” Buhain said.

We’re glad Buhain did not invoke the “isolated case” disclaimer. We understand the sports officials’ eagerness to put the controversy behind them. But they should not readily sweep the issue under the rug. Instead they should allow the NBI to dig deeper into the case and come up with its findings.

What went wrong

What went wrong

The country’s dream of playing basketball in the Olympics after an absence of over 30 years has turned into a nightmare. Beijing is now out of the question for the Philippine team, which failed to advance to the quarterfinals of the still ongoing FIBA-Asia Championships in Tokushima.

Only the Tokushima winner will join China, as host nation, in the 12-team Olympic basketball competition. The runner-up and third placer will be invited to participate in the pre-Olympic world qualifiers for three wildcard entries in July next year.

There are so many what-ifs to think about in analyzing what went wrong in the Philippines’ crusade.

What if Greek referee Nikolaos Zavlanos didn’t call that technical foul on the Philippines with 57 seconds left and Iran up by only a point?

What if the Philippines got lucky in the draw and went to Indonesia’s bracket with Qatar, Kazakhstan and India instead?

What if James Yap made it to the final 12?

What if the Philippines had more time to practice and not crammed because of the late lifting of the FIBA suspension?

What if Danny Seigle and Kerby Raymundo, nursing injuries, played 100 percent against Jordan?

What if the PBA used FIBA rules to familiarize the national cagers with the international game and break their habit of playing the NBA style of one-on-one?

What if the Philippines recruited a naturalized player like Jordan’s Rasheim Wright, Lebanon’s Joe Vogel and Japan’s J. R. Henderson?

If only the Philippines beat Iran, the team would now be playing in the quarterfinals and not battling for ninth place. The Iran heartbreaker destroyed the country’s Olympic dream, more than the loss to Jordan.

The team’s most glaring weakness was in offense as the Philippines shot a dismal .400 from the field in the first three games. Of the 16 teams in Tokushima, only Kuwait turned in a lower field goal percentage at .331. On the upside, the Philippines ranked second to top-notcher Chinese-Taipei in free throw marksmanship at .722.

It wasn’t that the Philippines had limited open looks or took poor shots. The players just couldn’t find the pulse to hit consistently, whether from up close or the perimeter. Who can forget those point-blank misses under the basket against Iran and the wide open shots that clanged from mid-range?

The players were too tense, too pressured to hit the shots they normally convert. They were burned out, victims of an exhausting conditioning program that was crammed to fit limited schedules. They never enjoyed themselves on the court – the tension was too unnerving.

When Jordan began knocking down threes in the third period, the defenders were often a step slow in challenging shots. Their legs were gone. They were dog-tired and lacked the energy to chase the outside shooters. Jordan opened the fourth period with an 8-0 blast that stretched a three-point lead to 11. The Philippines never came closer than seven and wound up losing by eight.

The reasons why the Philippines isn’t playing in the quarterfinals are:

Burnout. Coach Chot Reyes’ cagers couldn’t play with consistent high energy for three straight days. They were exhausted. The pressure was overwhelming and took away the fun in the game. It showed in the way the players bungled easy shots, couldn’t assert themselves defensively to force turnovers and allowed transition baskets. They rarely broke out for uncontested buckets.

Unfamiliarity. The players had difficulty adjusting to FIBA rules where a technical foul, for instance, has a penalty of two free throws and possession, a sense of urgency is dictated by 10-minute quarters and four team fouls mean penalty situation.

Absence. Because of a long layoff from FIBA competitions due to the country’s suspension, the PBA stars were shown little respect by league officials and referees. Zavlanos’ call in the Iran game is proof. The Philippines was disqualified from playing in the last Asian and Southeast Asian Games and the previous FIBA-Asia Championships. It was a rough re-initiation for the Philippines.

Mentality. Habits are hard to break and with their backs against the wall, the national cagers played instinctively, doing what they’re used to in the PBA. They resorted to going one-on-one, dribbling too much and playing to their individual talents instead of as a team.

Draw. Bracketed in the “Group of Death” was a killer blow because unlike the other teams that are used to the international game, the Philippines had little time to familiarize. It was a war for the Philippines from Day 1 and the attrition factor took a heavy toll on the squad.

With the Olympic dream extinguished, the Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas must now do some serious soul-searching to determine what to do next in planning for future international competitions.

Is the Philippines’ love affair with basketball doomed to an unhappy ending like Romeo and Juliet?