Spare our athletes

The tension in the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) continues to escalate.

But this time it’s no longer about PSC Chairman Richard “Dickie” Bachmann going against his two commissioners in Matthew “Fritz” Gaston and Edward Hayco. Bachmann’s older brother — former squash chief Robert Bachmann — has entered the fray and is now the one squaring off with the two ranking PSC executives in a fierce battle of political survival.

The ugly squabble that has become a huge black-eye on Philippine sports reached a new low when the older Bachmann reached out to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a letter on 16 February.

Bachman accused Gaston and Hayco of abuse of power, dereliction of duty, and disrespect to the office of the PSC chairman, which are offenses that could lead to their ouster from the government sports agency.

Bachmann’s claim has basis. Since Gaston got involved in a bitter squabble with his younger brother, the requests of the Philippine Squash Academy (PSA) have been put on hold, greatly affecting their preparations for the 33rd Southeast Asian Games and various tournaments that serve as qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Among the requests that are now gathering dust on Gaston’s table are for P1 million for the training gear and equipment of the squash athletes and the renewal of the contract of national team head coach Low Wee Wern of Malaysia. Without the approval of these two requests, the training and preparation of the athletes for major international events will be hampered and their performance is expected to suffer.

There’s no reason for Gaston to be sleeping on the PSA requests. First, the PSA is a member in good standing of the Philippine Olympic Committee and, second, it does not have any unliquidated accounts with the PSC. Also, those requests were approved by the PSC board of commissioners during the budget deliberations for 2025, which means they had passed the initial scrutiny of the five-man body.

In his defense, Gaston said that approving the PSA requests would be a clear conflict of interest in accordance with Commission on Audit Circular 2007-01 which states that government officials can’t deal with national sports organizations that are headed by their relatives up to the fourth degree. In this case, Robert Bachmann can’t transact with the PSC since his younger brother is its chief.

To resolve this, or for his federation to be given government funding ahead of crucial international events, Bachmann stepped down as president of the PSA. But the war didn’t end there as Bachmann asked President Marcos to investigate Gaston and Hayco for misconduct in the PSC.

There is no doubt that the war in the PSC is getting out of hand. It’s no longer about the Bachmann brothers versus the tandem of Gaston and Hayco — the welfare of the national athletes is at stake.

The next couple of years will be crucial to Filipino squash players as they are looking to make their debut in the 2028 Summer Olympics. We need to fuel their dream by giving them all kinds of support like a new training facility, world-class coaching, access to elite tournaments, better food and nutrition, and top-of-the-line training and competition equipment.

As Philippine sports enters its golden age, we can sustain it by rallying behind athletes who have what it takes to achieve glory on the world stage. Elite athletes like Hidilyn Diaz, Carlos Yulo and Ernest John Obiena all enjoyed all-out support from the government before becoming global superstars.

If we could give them everything they needed, why can’t we help those from other sports, like the squash players, with the right tools to make them succeed? Funding is no longer a problem — all it takes is strong political will and cooperation among the stakeholders to help the athletes realize their dream of competing in the Olympics.

Sadly, the bickering sports officials are making it hard for the athletes to gain momentum. And Filipino squash players will never be on top of the world for as long as they are being held hostage by politics, hatred and a personal vendetta by the very people tasked to support them.

If these sports officials can’t mend fences for the sake of the athletes, they might as well step down and let someone else do the job.