Senators to look into Asiad mess

Ranking officials from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and various national sports associations (NSAs) are expected to show up when the Senate Committee on Sports conducts an inquiry to shed light on the controversies during the country’s participation in the 20th Asian Games last week.

No less than Sports Committee chairman Senator Christopher “Bong” Go will preside over the public hearing scheduled at 8 a.m. on Thursday at the Sen. Jose P. Laurel Room of the Senate of the Philippines building in Pasay City.

Go, who was in Nagoya in the first few days of the prestigious continental showpiece, said the Proposed Senate Resolution No. 674 aims to come up with a “post-evaluation of the participation of Filipino athletes to strengthen the government support and ensure their optimal performance in future sports competitions.”

Team Philippines came up with a solid performance of four gold, nine silver and 16 bronze medals for a 17th place finish out of the 40 competing countries in the Asian Games.

But the participation was marred with controversies.

Gilas Pilipinas — the reigning champion of men’s basketball event — was booted out of competition early after stinging losses to Bahrain and China in the preliminaries after the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) deployed a team composed of Philippine Basketball Association stars without a single naturalized player.

Go, an avid basketball fan, said the setback will top the agenda when he calls for a public hearing that is expected to be attended by committee members Sens. JV Estrada, Joel Villanueva, Bam Aquino, Francis Escudero, Lito Lapid, Kiko Pangilinan, Imee Marcos, Mark Villar, Robin Padilla and Pia Cayetano.

“We will hold a post-evaluation hearing in the Senate. I will call the SBP and all key stakeholders so we can question them,” said Go after witnessing the Filipino cagers make an early exit after winning a historic title in Hangzhou in 2023.

“We want to determine what went wrong, why we were eliminated early, and why the defeat was so decisive. It’s saddening because we were the defending champions — something we fought so hard to reclaim after 62 years — and we know we have what it takes to win again as long as we are properly prepared.”

Go will also quiz ranking federation officials on why they didn’t deploy a naturalized player or the core of the team that swept the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers window.