No room for politics in sports--Coseteng

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    No room for politics in sports--Coseteng

    THERE should  be  no room for politics and patronage in Philippine sports.

    Thus  said former Sen. Anna Dominique  “Nikki” Coseteng  as she took  up the  cudgels for the nth time for the beleaguered swimmers who continue to bring  honor to the country  despite limited support from the  Philippine  Olympic  Committee  (POC) and Philippine Sports Commission (PSC).

    A  well-known human rights activist  and  street parliamentarian  before  her forays into sports, Coseteng  urged the  new officials of  the PSC  to look deeper into  the  controversies hounding  the national  swimming  association.

    The  64-year-old  chairwoman  of the Philippine Swimming League  (PSL) said the  new  sports officials  appointed  by President  Duterte should  take  a   more active role in ensuring that the financial  assistance  given  by the government sports agency  is properly spent for the welfare  of the athletes.

    Coseteng expressed surprised that the POC continue to recognize the Philippine  Swimming, Inc. (PSI) whose president Mark Powell Joseph has pending warrant of arrest  issued by the Sandinganbayan Third Division for alleged violation of Republic Act  3019.

    PSL, headed by Coseteng and Olympian Susan Papa, also found an ally in the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC),  headed by Dante Jimenez, which  threw its full support to the  efforts to crack  the  whip on undesirable  individuals in sports.

    “Our government is injured by fraudulent practices and unremitting efforts to cheat. The country’s program for the development of swimming as a sport is  not spared. Millions of pesos have been drawn from  government funds purportedly for the swimmers, only to  be used for corrupt purposes,” said Coseteng in a  press statement also signed by Papa and Jimenez.

    “To close our eyes to this prevailing situation  is to condone fraud against the government treasury and to go against the interests of our  young swimmers in particular, and the  Filipino people and our country in general,” added Coseteng,

    Coseteng  lamented the culture of patronage and politics in sports and claimed  “the greatest roadblock in  the long and arduous journey of Philippine sports to national and international excellence is the  persistent moral depravity of our sports institutions which is aggravated by the  wanton disregard of govenrment officials of their mandate and duties under the law.”

    She said the previous PSC failed to function as an effective government regulatory agency.

    “The PSC in the past has turned a deaf ear to the voices of young Filipino swimmers  whose only dream is to swim freely and pursue excellence in theiur chosen field. The PSC has continued to work with and follow the dictates of PSI president  Mark Joseph despite the fact that the latter is facing corruption charges before the Office of  Sandiganbayan and child abuse case in the Quezon Cty Regional Trial Court.”

    A graduate of the Notre Dame College of California and University of the Philippines, Coseteng was team owner and manager of the Galerie Dominique team in the Philippine  Basketball Associaiton (PBA).

    In 1983, she became vice-president of Asia’s first play-for-pay league.

    She  was elected member of the House of Representatives for the Third District of Quezon City in 1987 and  was elected  senator  in 1992.

    In 1995, she was re-elected senator and served until 2001. She is now president of the family-owned  Diliman College.