“First, sports must rid itself of non-performing presidents, not non-performing athletes,” said a veteran journalist from Southeast Asia.

An Indian journalist said the same is true in India as well as in other countries where national sports association presidents, once elected, stay in power for as long as they want because NSAs are not run like democracies where the president is elected by the sports community.

He said that if a sports association doesn’t win a medal
, it’s because the association is not working hard enough, and the failure to win a medal in the Asian Games is some indication that the NSA is not being professionally run.

“NSAs are fiefdoms run by presidents whose so-called mandate comes only from a small group they control,” he said.

“These leaders can do anything they want and get away with murder because they have the protection of the NOCs (National Olympic Committees) and Ifs (international federations), and the small group that can oust him are all under his control,” he added.

In the Philippines, NSAs have the Philippines Sports Commission to blame for their failures.

The Philippine contingent comes home a failure again in many sports disciplines, and this trend will continue to next year’s SEA Games and the 2010 Olymic Games and beyond.

Unlike corporate entities where presidents serve at the pleasure of a powerful board of directors, NSAs don’t have a board powerful enough to oust its president.

In the first place, the board is elected by regional presidents that are inactive and oftentimes vote by proxy or acclamation because of the distance to the place of election or for some considerations.

In the Philippines, regional presidents are in office for as long as their president is in power but have no grassroots program that will identify and develop sports
talents in the countryside to form a wide base of athletes for the national team.

One active regional president among the 38 NSAs in the Philippines is the region1 president of wushu, Tony Candelaria, who has developed homegrown talents in Baguio into wushu experts led by bronze medalist Mark Ediva and Edward Folayang.

Anomalous activities cannot be checked and there are no legal means available to remove a president from power.

The Philippine Olympic Committee cannot interfere in the affairs of its member NSAs because of the principle of autonomy espoused by its mother organization, the International Olympic Committee.

The international federation also cannot step into the internal affairs of its member NSA under the principle of autonomy, which allows each member to resolve its own internal affairs.

Disputes brought to it can be resolved only through compromise or through the Court for Arbitration in Sports in Switzerland - quite a costly undertaking for a group trying to establish reforms through normal democratic means.

Complaints also cannot be addressed to the NSA itself because one must be a member to be heard. Disgruntled sports bodies cannot file an action with the NSA board, which doesn’t exist.

“The only means of check and balance in India is through the sports ministry which requires those that receive funds to account not only for the funds but for their performance,” he said.

But with the PSC and POC joining hands, and the PSC at the beck and call of the POC, there could no longer be a semblance of a check and balance in the sports community.

PSC chairman Richie Garcia had announced, a few days after he was appointed by the President, a plan to give amnesty to all NSAs which had not liquidated their advances to the government agency.

“The sports associations in my country must realize the fact that athletes represent their country and they must make sure that they bring honor, not shame to their country,” he said.

“Let us not blame the athletes, let us blame the leaders who run the sports programs,” he added.

“If they cannot produce the medals, they don’t have to be told to resign or to open an election to choose a president in a more democratic manner,” he said.

When the Thai shooting team, over 10 years back, faltered in the SEA Games the shooting coach promptly resigned.

The president of US national sports association announced last year he would not serve beyond his term, saying he has not done enough and his personal funds are running low.

“If my association or my constituents don’t like me anymore, I will hold an open election, so they can choose the president they like,” said athletics president Go Teng Kok.

Gerry Carpio, Philippine Star