Dragon Heart

     Many scoff at the 1996 movie Dragonheart, as a kid's movie, filled with action/adventure fluff and an entirely predictable happy ending.  While I won't dispute the fluff part, the movie's ending, where the evil and oppressive King Einan, is finally killed and defeated, is a sad one.  The hero, Bowen had to kill his best friend, Draco, the last remaining dragon on Earth, so that Einan will lose invincibility and die. Everyone was happy with the new peaceful kingdom, and some even happy that Draco would now be in heaven, but I couldn't believe no one felt sad or even noticed that all dragons became extinct.

     Everyone interested has probably heard or read about the story by now.  In 2010, in the run up to the South East Asian (SEA) Games, the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF) Team was vying for slots to the Philippine delegation.  Coming in as two-time world champions, the team expected to receive a free pass, but the Philippine Olympic Committee, headed by Jose Peping Cojuangco, told them they had to earn them.  Asked to match the bronze medal times of the previous Asian Championships in order to qualify, the team performed in POC-arranged and sactioned time trials in La Mesa Dam (a POC-approved and utilized venue for Dragon Boat competitions).  In the time trials, the women's team performed times good enough for 2 gold medals and 1 silver, while the men's team performed times that could net a gold, silver and bronze.  In a completely head-scratching decision,  the POC representative, Col. Jeff Tamayo (ret.) claimed that the paddlers were, "super men and super women" or on "super steroids."  Not minding that the POC themselves arranged the time trials, Tamayo also  claimed that the PDBF  intentionally submitted slow reference times so they could overcome them. Of course, Tamayo could have just logged on to the internet to check the times himself, but that would make too much sense.  Tamayo recommended leaving the Dragon Boaters off the list of athletes for the SEA Games and the POC accepted it wholeheartedly.     

     After a media blitz (only in papers and blogs -- i posted one here and here), the POC was not through with the PDBF.  Pouncing on an International Olympic Committee (IOC) memo suggesting that Dragon Boat could be placed under Canoe and Kayak to keep things simple, claimed it was a directive from the IOC and it must be followed. Here's where it got real sticky.  The move to the Philippine Canoeing and Kayaking Federation (PCKF) would mean that the team will lose their existing coaches (who spoke against the POC - what a coincidence!!!) and they would lose their chance to compete in the World Championships since the PCKF is not recognized as a proper Dragon Boat Federation.  The team was stripped of its national team status as they refused to come under the PCKF; hence the loss of their athletes' salary and incentives.  


     As the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation Team comes home this week, the public has been properly informed of their amazing 5 gold, 2 silver romp in the recently concluded 10th IDBF Dragon Boat World Championships in Florida.  If everything goes as planned, they will receive a heroes' welcome from a grateful nation, their victory despite lack of funding and support from the Philippine Olympic Committee, serves as the nation's version of killing Einan.  The thing is, as the people celebrated Einan's defeat (rightfully so), no one bothered to remember that they had lost all the dragons.  We cannot afford to be like that.  


     As our dragons come home, we must welcome them with the love, support and adulation that they deserve, but we must also take care to be vigilant, to make sure that this amazing 5 gold and 2 silver romp will not be the last. We need our dragons alive and paddling.  We need to fight to correct the system that relegated them to near extinction and topple the oppresive evil that created it.




photos courtesy of Den Victoria