Although he once owned championship basketball teams, businessman-sportsman Dr. Cecilio Pedro’s views have changed, stressing the need for the country to develop talented athletes in medal-rich individual sports who can excel in international play.
“Let’s focus on individual sports where we can truly win internationally, like gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo who won two golds in the Paris Olympics,” Pedro, president of the Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc., said in the recent Kamuning Bakery and Café forum.
“Huwag na tayong gumasta sa basketball team na marami na ang players tapos may coaches pa, eh wala naman tayong panalo sa Olympics,” added the owner Lamoiyan Corp, maker of Hapee toothpaste, which has bankrolled basketball squads in various leagues in the past.
“Let’s just focus our resources on those sports where Filipinos can actually win like boxing or in track and field,” said Pedro, pointing to world No. 2 pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena as another example.
“‘Yan ang mga sports na dapat tulungan natin, hindi sa kung anu-anong sports na wala namang pag-asang manalo. Let us just give our resources to sports where we can win medals in international competitions and bring honor to the country,” he said.
His sentiments were shared by Sen. Imee Marcos, who appeared in the same forum and whose late father, President Ferdinand Marcos, was an avid sports enthusiast who created the Project: Gintong Alay program headed by his nephew Michael Keon.
The program is credited for the resurgence of Philippine sports performance internationally during the late seventies until the early nineties, producing sports heroes and heroines like sprint legend Lydia de Vega and top long jumper Elma Muros-Posadas.
She also suggested the revival of the godfather system that was part of the component of the Gintong Alay program where top businessmen picked the sports they wanted to support, like the late business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco who bankrolled basketball, Roberto Benedicto who supported swimming, and Panfilo Domingo in lawn tennis.
“Like what my late father did, there were godfathers from the private sector for selected sports that they supported extensively not only with money but also with other resources,” the senator said.
