When (Dirty) Harry Met Silly

     When Harry Angping was appointed the new Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman a few months ago, everyone could see trouble brewing for Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr. miles away.  Unlike other PSC administrators, it was clear Angping, a former Manila congressman, would be completely his own man.  With his deep political and business contacts, he obviously did not lack allies and connections, but what made him even more "dangerous" to Peping was "Dirty Harry" had a concrete set of plans he intended to push.

     SInce A

ngping's entry into the PSC, Philippine Sports has become the backdrop of a most riveting soap opera.  In the months that followed, all of the PSC's moves were met with complaints of bias from the POC, while the PSC returned the favor by closing offices and refusing to release funds.  Recently, a new issue has pushed things to become even more heated.

     The issue stems from the new track suits (jacket, jogging pants, shorts, etc) that the PSC has designed and produced for the Philippine contingent for the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in December.  As expected, the POC, through Cojuanco apologizer Steve Hontiveros, dismissed the suits as "not passing standards," going as far as saying they were a big, "waste of money."  

      The "standards" that were not met?  Well, Hontiveros cited that firstly, the jacket design was not submitted for their approval, so aside from the design flaws, certain POC sponsors were not given their due space.  As far as I know, the PSC spends for all of the track suits, so why would the PSC need POC approval?   Why would the POC, a PRIVATE company, have the po

wer to dictate

 how the PSC, a government agency, should spend the government's money?

      Then, the track suits also didn't pass the "standard" of color, since the new suits were yellow, which Hontiveros claimed is not, "our color."  Ummm... seen your own flag lately Steve?  Yellow is our color.  Red, blue and YELLOW are the colors of our flag.  Furthermore, let's keep this in perspective.  In 2002, the Adidas-sponsored track suits were black and red and I don't see black on our flag.  Our Beijing Olympians went to the Opening in Aqua Green Barongs, definitely not "our" color, so why all this flak for the PSC preparing the track suits (a lot earlier than usual I might add)?  

      It would have been a lot more believable if the "standards" the POC were crowing about actually had something to do with the track suits' performance, but seeing the 2006 and 2007 POC appro

ved track suits (the 2006 New Balance suits were too thin for the cold Qatar weather while the 2007 Everlast jackets had faulty zippers), it is clear that their "standards" are all about something else. The only "standard" this set of yellow track suits failed to pass is the "30% commission" standard the previous approved suits "passed."    

      As long as Cojuangco steadfastly hangs on to his ever-decreasing dictator-like hold on Philippine sports and Angping continues his plans of challenging and antagonizing him, the feuds will keep coming on all fronts, just like our favorite telenovelas on television.  From gold medal winning predictions to budget concerns, Harry Angping's PSC and Peping Cojuanco's POC are battling a bitter feud that even the stellar creative teams of ABS CBN and GMA 7 couldn't even dream of, and now, even something as simple as jacket design has become a battleground.  While this whole thing earns a lot of forehead slapping and heaad shaking, it seems I can't help but keep staying tuned to it.  It is clear that the last thing our country needs is a feud that will stunt the growth of our youth and national athletes, but I for one can't turn my head away from this telenovela, When (Dirty) Harry Met Silly.