Politics over national interest
Filipino athletes are giving their best to make the country proud. The most our government officials can do is support them by giving them everything they need.
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Filipino athletes are giving their best to make the country proud. The most our government officials can do is support them by giving them everything they need.
The Senate drama instigated by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is now reaping its ugly consequences. And, sadly, the biggest casualty is Philippine basketball.
Bennie Boatwright — the country’s top naturalization prospect — failed to obtain his Philippine passport in time to make him eligible for the fourth window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers and the 20th Asian Games.
There was no problem with the requirements or Boatwright’s willingness to represent the country as the successor to the 38-year-old Brownlee.
In fact, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) had done its job, making sure that Boatwright had all the necessary documents for a smooth passage of the naturalization measure from the Lower House to the Senate all the way to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s formally signing it into law.
After all, the federation had done it in the past not just with Brownlee, but with other players from Marcus Douthit and Andray Blatche to Malick Diouf and Elizabeth Means.
But in a stroke of misfortune on 13 May, Boatwright found himself in the middle of an ugly Senate drama that saw a trigger-happy Senate Sergeant-at-Arms peppering the building with bullets while Cayetano and his sister, Senator Pia Cayetano, screamed their lungs out in a dimly-lit room, claiming that the Senate was under attack.
Eventually, it turned out the stunt was just a diversionary tactic to allow Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to sneak out of the building after he delivered the decisive vote that installed Cayetano as Senate President.
The drama didn’t end there. Boatwright’s naturalization again hit a snag after Cayetano and his allies in the majority snubbed the session on 1 June after learning the minority had mustered the numbers to unseat him as Senate President.
House Bill 6639, titled “An Act Granting Philippine Citizenship to Bennie Francois Boatwright III,” was among the three measures lined up for third and final reading during what would have been Senate Session No. 69. Boatwright was at the Senate session hall together with an SBP representative, preparing to finally receive the chamber’s approval.
Again, he came up empty-handed. The President had to call for a special session under the leadership of new Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian for Boatwright’s naturalization papers to move past the chamber.
The Senate formally transmitted the bill to Malacañang on 30 July but Marcos failed to sign it, leaving Boatwright no choice but to wait 30 days when the bill would lapse into law and he could start processing his passport.
By then, the window for Boatwright to make his oath of allegiance and secure a Bureau of Immigration certification and his passport had closed ahead of the Asian Games opening on 10 September.
The heartbreaking turn of events under Cayetano’s watch was a clear microcosm of a pervasive culture in national governance: leaders consistently prioritizing self-preservation, factional leverage and personal ambition over essential public service.
In this country, sports is far more than mere entertainment — it is a rare point of national unity, a driver of pride and an arena where the country demands international respect. Completing Boatwright’s naturalization on time was a basic administrative task to serve a clear national purpose. But when politicians treat the Senate floor as a playground for power plays, national interests are held hostage.
Because of this legislative dysfunction, Gilas Pilipinas must now field an all-Filipino lineup in a pair of crucial tournaments. Yes, Gilas won by the skin of its teeth over Jordan, 82-81, last Friday, but the fact remains that it is not a complete team because a senator prioritized his political ambition.
Filipino athletes are giving their best to make the country proud. The most our government officials can do is support them by giving them everything they need. If they can do it to our national athletes like the very popular Gilas Pilipinas, what more to the constituents they vowed to serve and protect —like the senior citizen who badly needs financial assistance for his maintenance meds or the single mother banking on government subsidies to make ends meet?
Gilas Pilipinas is competing through exhaustion and physical disadvantages to defend the flag. Sadly, they will march to the Asian Games carrying the extra burden of having to cover for a failure that didn’t happen on the hardwood, but in the halls of the Senate.
