Time to clean the blade

Time to clean the blade | Daily Tribune

Last Tuesday, Leyte 4th District Rep. Richard Gomez took the floor to deliver a scathing privilege speech that framed him as a defender of Filipino athletes.

His target? Philippine Fencing Association (PFA) president Rene Gacuma, who issued the green light to drop the country’s top fencer, Alexa Larrazabal, from the women’s individual epee event of the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok last December.

On the surface, Gomez’s rant looks valid. To see a top-ranked fencer getting unceremoniously replaced in favor of the No. 3 just a few hours before seeing action in a major competition isn’t just unfair — it is downright cruel. It reflects the favoritism, abuse and blatant use of power that is long frowned upon in the local sports community.

But for the insiders of the local fencing community, Gomez’s fiery rhetoric was nothing but noise. While the honorable lawmaker from Ormoc thundered against the unjust and unwarranted treatment of Larrazabal, the ghosts of past controversies haunt him as sideliners claim that there are a lot of young fencers whose dreams of playing for the country were murdered by his own favoritism and bullying within the federation.

The most high-profile among them was Maxine Esteban — a three-time Southeast Asian Games medalist and the top-ranked Filipino fencer at that time.

When Esteban suffered a knee injury while representing the country in the World Championships in Egypt in 2022, she took a leave of absence, which the PFA immediately approved. But to her surprise, she wasn’t allowed to return without notice, which prompted her to pack her bags for the Ivory Coast.

That’s why when Gomez stepped on the podium on that fateful Tuesday afternoon, fencing insiders were shaking their heads. For them, Gomez has no moral ascendancy to accuse Gacuma of bullying when he is also guilty of killing the dreams of some of the country’s finest fencers.

Let’s not kid ourselves, Gomez’s fiery rhetoric wasn’t meant to protect Larrazabal. It is a brazen attempt to seize the moral high ground and dictate the narrative after a video surfaced of him cursing and hitting Gacuma from behind when he learned that Larrazabal was pulled out of her competition sparked public outrage.

Although Gomez has always been known to be emotional and short-tempered, it is not an excuse to physically assault a 64-year-old senior citizen who already underwent a quadruple bypass operation and whose life greatly depends on a pacemaker. By doing so, he didn’t just vent his ire — he practically put Gacuma’s life at risk.

Gacuma is no saint either. He also has his share of shortcomings in running the federation, but he doesn’t deserve to be hit — from behind — by a much younger, stronger man.

The Larrazabal issue may be a tragedy of sports politics. But using it as a platform for a “holier-than-thou” crusade is the height of hypocrisy. If Gomez, who is also a member of the national team, truly wants to enact a law to protect his fellow athletes from what he claims as “grave abuse of authority and favoritism,” he should start by examining the precedents set during his own term as fencing chief.

There is no way for Philippine sports to thrive for as long as officials use athletes as pawns for their personal and political agendas. Until our sports leaders can look in the mirror and acknowledge their own roles in the culture of bullying they now condemn, speeches like that of Gomez are nothing but mere grandstanding.

It’s time for the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) to step in and look into this matter. Its leadership should flex its muscles and prove that nobody is above the law — not even Gomez, who serves as the second vice president in the POC executive council.

The cases of bullying and abuse in fencing are slowly getting out of hand. Clearly, the ball is no longer in the PFA’s court — it’s now in the POC’s. It’s time for the local Olympic council to launch an honest, transparent and credible investigation to make sure that those who are abusing the rights of Filipino athletes will be held accountable.

If POC officials fail to act decisively now, they aren’t just letting down Larrazabal, Esteban and other hapless young fencers; they are telling every aspiring Filipino athlete that their hard work is secondary to the whims of powerful and abusive sports officials.

It is time to clean the blade. Our athletes deserve a federation that fights for them — not against them.