Pinoys are world class…abroad

Why is it that Pinoys are constantly proving themselves world class abroad but the country itself seems unable to extricate itself from the third world? Name any field of endeavor… science… business… athletes… artists… entertainers… teachers… doctors… nurses… even religious leaders and we have proven ourselves equal to the world’s best.

With such an abundance of talent, how come we cannot seem to excel enough in our own country to make a real difference? How come the disciplined Pinoy who follows the rules abroad reverts to his native anarchic self once back on local soil? Is it something in the air we breathe? Or, as some people often observe, the quality of our leaders… our politics that make us what we are in our homeland.

These thoughts came to mind as my associate Rosan Cruz told me the story of a Filipina athlete who is now making a mark in international badminton competitions. She tried to make it here but gave up in frustration. Now she is representing the United States and winning honors for Uncle Sam. Her story underscores what’s rotten with Philippine sports which are pretty much what’s wrong with our society and politics.

When we interviewed Noynoy at Philippine Star, he observed that the reason we are unable to win any gold medals or any medals at all in many international competitions is because of sports politics. We take it for granted that there are more officials going to sports competitions than competing athletes. Worse, they bring their families and friends on a junket charged to the taxpayers.

Noynoy noted that our sports officials are only after personal spoils. They have made their positions in sports organization a source of livelihood. He deplored the lack of support for our promising athletes as what little funds are available are misallocated by these sports officials. He recounted a story he heard about our boxers who had to share one boxer shorts among them in one international competition.

The worse part of the cancer in Philippine sports can be traced to the “bata bata” system where influential sports officials play favorites among athletes to the detriment of more talented athletes. Out of frustration, some of these good athletes are now starting to compete abroad under a different flag and bringing honor to another country not their own.

I had just been told of the case of Karyn Velez, who just won a badminton singles championship in Mexico for the United States! Here is her story.

Those who are about my age probably remember the late Jose Mari Velez. JoeMari was the anchor of ABC Channel 5’s nightly newscast before martial law. He was a rare anchor in the sense that he was not just a news reader with a pretty face. He had brains to match a great authoritative voice and good looks. He was a lawyer, a UP Law graduate, and he represented the first district of Rizal in the 1971 Constitutional Convention. He was a great guy to be with.

Karyn Velez is his granddaughter. According to Rosan, Karyn’s father, Jofer, is a genius and got his academic credentials from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His 19-year old daughter was born in the States while he was taking his masters in MIT.

Jofer tried and failed to have his daughter represent our country instead of the US. He became simply frustrated with the local system. In his words, “these are professional operators. You only know once you’re in the system, and you experience the many frustrations over time.”

Jofer relates his sad experience:

“I’ll give you three examples: 1) Many years ago, when Karyn was the emerging junior standout, she joined Batang Pinoy. The tournament director had his ‘manok’, a girl from Cebu who was to play Karyn in the finals. But before that happened, he changed the schedule to make sure Karyn played five other games THE SAME MORNING before her singles finals. Karyn ended up cramping during the game and was crying. But she toughed it out, recovered and went on to zero the Cebu girl in the second set and winning the title.

“2) During the Philippine Team tryouts last 2006 or 2007 Karyn was the leading player in the country. But she wasn’t part of the Philippine Team despite being selected (by a temporarily different coach) for the 2005 SEAG. When she showed up for the ranking, I noticed a quick meeting among the officials who decided that the rankings would not push through because the school schedules of the other entries were in conflict! When Karyn had to leave the country a month or so later, they quickly organized the same ranking without her, thus assuring she would not be in the Team.

“3) Earlier this year, we decided that Karyn would join the US Open instead of the RP Open (tight schedule between the two). But we need Philippine Badminton Association (PBA) endorsement to join any Badminton World Federation tourney. Though we gave them so much lead time, the PBA Secretariat informed us the entry was late and thus Karyn could not be accepted to the US Open.

“I suspected this might happen since her joining other tournaments where she might do well was always problematic from an endorsement standpoint – PBA never wanted Karyn to perform well internationally. Despite our disappointment, we asked that she be included in the RP Open instead, knowing full well hosts have maximum flexibility with home entries. We were told it was also too late!! I asked the tournament referee (a Thai) later on and he said Karyn could have still joined but the request was not made.”

So, Karyn is now based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where she trains with and is sponsored by KLRC (Kuala Lumpur Racket Club). When joining international tourneys sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation, she represents the USA.

Check out http://www.badmintonpanam.org/news_item.aspx?id=28398 and you will see this news item on Torneo International Mexicano 2009:

“At CNAR facilities today ended the Mexican International, last event for this year in our Panam circuit. Kevin Cordon from Guatemala won men singles and concluded a very good season by wining five singles events and good performance by Karin Velez from USA who took the women singles and doubles with Victoria Montero.”

Why is this a big deal? It is a big deal because “this is the first time for an American in an Olympic point-scoring BWF/IBF international championship.”

Karyn should be playing for the Philippines in the coming Olympics and not for the USA. But guess what? She will be playing for the USA and if she wins a gold, that could have been the first ever gold for the Philippines.

I don’t blame Karyn’s dad for making the decision for her to stop representing the Philippines last July. For over 10 years playing ‘under’ the auspices of the Philippine Badminton Association, they received absolutely ZERO support. On the contrary, hindrances were placed to prevent Karyn from testing her mettle in the international arena.

In any case, Jofer, the super proud father reports that Karyn’s first campaign representing the US last November-December produced four outstanding results: quarterfinals in Sto. Domingo and Puerto Rico, finals in Miami, and the singles championship in Mexico! Her performance resulted in a world rank of 114 (she is currently #120), which is by far the highest ever reached by a one of ours using the new BWF Olympic-qualifying points system.

Our loss is America’s gain… and all because of stupid local badminton association officials! I don’t know if Noynoy can fix that.

Incidentally, I also found out that Rachel, the wife of boxing champion Nonito Donaire, wants to represent the Philippines in international taekwondo competitions but the local guys are cool to the idea. Rachel, a US National Collegiate and Military Taekwondo champion, is a blackbelt who recently defeated America’s taekwondo Olympic contender.

She was born in the US but of Filipino parentage and wants to represent our country. If we can allow a US passport holder to be a Malacanang official, why can’t we allow Rachel to represent us in international taekwondo competitions? –Boo Chanco (The Philippine Star)