Alex Eala, the latest toast of sports-loving Filipinos, was candid enough to admit that holding a Philippine passport has been a major challenge for a touring professional athlete like her. Well, the 19-year-old tennis sensation raised a very valid point.

According to the latest Henley Passport Index, the Philippine passport ranks 75th among 199 passport-issuing countries in the world. With this ranking, a Philippine passport holder can travel to only 67 countries without having to secure a visa.

The country’s ranking, which actually dropped two notches from last year, is no match to its Southeast Asian neighbor Singapore, which has the world’s most powerful passport that grants entry to 195 nations, and Japan, which is automatically welcomed in 193 countries.

Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain shared third place with visa-free access to 192 destinations.

Eala, who was born and raised in the Philippines but has been living and training in Spain since she was 13 years old, finds the limitations of a Philippine passport quite challenging.

First, it doesn’t give her the flexibility to travel.

Professional tennis is brutal. You have to travel to tournaments all over the world, not necessarily to win a title, but to compete to gain precious ranking points.

If Grand Slam events like the Australian Open, US Open, French Open and Wimbledon in the UK all require a Philippine passport holder like Eala to secure a visa, how about other key tournaments like the Qatar Open, Miami Open in the US, Italian Open, Dubai Championships, and China Open, which are all crucial tournaments that offer precious Women’s Tennis Association ranking points?

Since Eala holds a Philippine passport, this means she has to take a break from her training to go to the various embassies and fill in all the necessary paperwork to obtain a visa. It’s really tough and distracting.

No wonder Philippine-born half-Japanese golfer Yuka Saso opted to play for Japan despite winning a gold medal for the country in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018. Clearly, to Filipino sports fans, Saso was one that got away.

Saso, a dual citizen who was born in San Ildefonso, Bulacan to a Japanese father, said she decided to represent Japan before her 22nd birthday in 2021 because of the power of the Japanese passport that allows her to travel everywhere without having to secure a visa.

Like tennis, professional golfers are touring athletes. They need to travel around the world for ranking points, the pot money and, of course, to get to know the toughest courses against the toughest players.

When Saso announced her decision to formally become a Japanese citizen, no one raised a howl. Even the National Golf Association of the Philippines and the Philippine Olympic Committee were helpless, admitting that becoming a Japanese was a precious opportunity for her that could greatly boost her professional career.

But we can’t let another elite athlete like Eala walk away to embrace another citizenship. Yes, we know that Eala is a pure-blooded Filipino, with her mother even winning a bronze medal for the country in the Southeast Asian Games, but if push comes to shove, we can’t blame her if she suddenly decides to become a citizen of Spain, where she has been living since 2018.

An athlete like Eala comes only once in a generation. She is a national treasure who brings a ray of sunshine to Filipinos who are sick and tired of all the bad news they have been getting for a very long time now. Losing her will definitely be a major blow, not just to Philippine sports, but to all Filipinos as well.

The Philippine Sports Commission, Department of Foreign Affairs, and even the Office of the President must do something to prevent another elite athlete from leaving just because of the limitations of the passport they are holding. They have to find a way to have Eala and other touring Filipino athletes enter countries around the world without having to go through the hassle of obtaining a visa.

They better act quickly before Eala becomes the next heartbreaker, another one that got away.