Height of hypocrisy

Fighting for Filipino athletes is turning into a shield for politicians to escape accountability.

Whenever questions about unexplained wealth, lavish spending and shady deals arise, ranking officials conveniently weaponize the Filipinos’ love and passion for sports to shut down legitimate scrutiny.

That playbook was on full display on the 43rd day of the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte last Thursday. When the prosecution asked about the P256,882 that Duterte’s husband, Atty. Manases “Mans” Carpio, charged to his credit card, Senator Pia Cayetano jumped in, injecting drama into the courtroom proceedings.

According to defense witness Chadrin Parian, Carpio’s co-parent in their sons’ youth basketball team, Carpio swiped his credit card at a Nike store in Kuala Lumpur to pay for 24 brand-new basketball shoes as a reward for the boys’ winning an international event.

Wait, why 24 when there were only 12 players on the team, including Carpio’s son? House private prosecutor Reynaldo Robles later elicited that even the parents received shoes, which brought Carpio’s bill to more than a quarter of a million pesos — which was not aligned with Republic Act 6713, which requires public officials and their families to lead modest lives and avoid ostentatious displays of wealth.

Robles’ question sparked a fiery pushback from Cayetano, who told the prosecution she could not hide her disdain for them. Why should parents be forced to abandon their duty to support their young athletes just because a spouse holds a ranking government position?

Then, Senator-Judge Robin Padilla stepped in, challenging the prosecutors to investigate his own personal expenses and telling congressmen to check their own ranks for luxury cars before barking at others.

Cayetano and Padilla’s stunts successfully turned a forensic accounting audit into a debate about whether it is okay to buy sneakers for kids while shifting the spotlight away from the actual issue: the scandalous display of wealth by the husband of the second-highest government official in the country.

Cayetano’s hypocrisy was through the roof. First, what has she done for Philippine sports? Okay, she used to be a volleyball player for the University of the Philippines and was an avid fitness advocate who regularly competed in endurance sports like triathlons, marathons and Hyrox. She also served as the founding chairman of Padel Pilipinas, the national sports federation for the fledgling racket sport.

But what did she do to uplift the standard of living of Filipino athletes? Did she ever use her influence and position to, say, increase the benefits of retired national athletes or improve the living conditions of active members of Team Philippines? We don’t think so.

But the real elephant in the room is her silence on the issue surrounding the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) — the body founded by her younger brother, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, to take charge of hosting the 30th Southeast Asian Games in 2019.

Phisgoc has left a trail of controversies that prompted the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to launch a probe last July.

Among the issues the NBI is closely looking into is the giant cauldron that was allegedly found to be overpriced at P55 million, as well as other irregularities in the construction of sports facilities and the procurement of equipment, apparel and other questionable deals that only Cayetano’s brother and Phisgoc chief operating officer Ramon “Tats” Suzara could answer.

The NBI was supposed to release the outcome of its findings and file appropriate charges last month, but an avalanche of evidence and testimonies came its way, prompting it to defer its legal action to “before Christmas.”

Still, Pia Cayetano was unusually quiet whenever the SEA Games issue was being tackled. In fact, she even expressed frustration and anger over the investigations and criticism about the SEA Games, accusing critics and fellow lawmakers of politicizing the sports infrastructure and launching “witch hunts” rather than simply supporting the Filipino athletes.

Before Cayetano flaunts her moral compass and lectures others about being generous to young Filipino athletes, she has to look in her own backyard and check whether the issue that involves her brother has been addressed.

Instead of deflecting criticism and branding legitimate questioning as a “witch hunt,” she should answer these questions or lead a parallel investigation to finally lay the Phisgoc issue to rest.

Filipino athletes are struggling with meager allowances, inadequate facilities and institutional neglect. They deserve fierce defenders in the halls of power — someone who will not only use them when it’s time to score political points or as shields from answering difficult questions.