Equity in Sports

By: Jerry Louise L. Huerbana

Unlike the highly and heavily supported Philippine Football Team Azkals and the
Philippine Basketball Team Smart Gilas Pilipinas, our country’s Dragon Boat Team is the
most consistent in producing medals for our country despite the lack of support from
Philippine government and Filipino community.

Compared to Gilas Pilipinas which received an overwhelming support after they

won silver, the unheralded Dragon Boat Team received not so big support from the
Filipino sports fans. If they received any, it is just meager compared to the support
received by our national basketball team and national football team.

It is a fact that basketball, boxing, volleyball and football are sports that attract
much audience. Maybe that is one of the reasons why promoters and big companies
poured their supports to these sports despite their inconsistent performance.

Dragon Boat team never fails us to bring gold medals every time they compete
abroad. Other sports deserve the same support and attention that were received by
other prominent sports.

Philippine government and many big companies of the country pledged supports
to Dragon Boat Team but until now the pledges still remain as pledges. They don’t
deserve an imaginary support because they provide us with concrete honor, pride and
tangible medals – not imaginary medals only.

I think it is a good thing if all sports must be given equal treatment by the
government specifically the Philippine Sports Commission.

If and only all sports are supported equally, it is not impossible for the Philippines
to go back to its former stature where we ruled and dominated the medal tally board of
every Asian games.

With sufficient support from the government and from communities, athletes will
have ample training under the supervision of highly capable experts and state-of-the-art
sports facilities. With these, we well expect a far better performance from our athletes in
international competitions.

Discrimination is not only present in justice system of the country but it also
exists in the way we treat and the amount of support we give to different sports events.