Commissioner Joaquin “Chito’” Loyzaga of the Philippine Sports Commission resigned yesterday, citing the declining health of his father, two-time Olympian and former Micaa star Carlos Loyzaga, as the main reason for leaving his post.
Loyzaga’s resignation was sent to President Benigno Aquino III a day after he left Sunday for Australia to help his mother attend to the needs of the 82-year-old patriarch, who failed to fully recover from a stroke last year.
Other than personal reasons, Loyzaga was said to be at odds with fellow officials at the PSC on certain policies, specifically the program for priority sports and regional training centers.
A source close to the former Barangay Ginebra basketball star said the sports agency veered away from the original plan of sending 450 retired national athletes from different disciplines as coaches to impart their technical expertise at the grassroots level in the provinces.
Instead, the source said the program was shelved with the initial P100-million allocation for the project on its way to boost the funding of national sports associations outside of the 10 priority sports.
After the country’s sixth-place finish in the Southeast Asian Games, President Aquino ordered the PSC to identify 10 priority sports, which will be funded by the government.
These are boxing, taekwondo, athletics, swimming, wushu, archery, wrestling, bowling, weightlifting and billiards.
Officials of secondary sports outside of this special group called for a review and threatened to demonstrate against the agency, forcing PSC chairman Richie Garcia to defer the implementation of the prioritization scheme.
According to the source, the budget for focus sports is roughly P200 million while the rest of the NSAs will again be left to execute their own talent identification and grassroots programs using almost P396 million in government money after the PSC canceled the beefing up of regional training centers.
“It is my sincere hope that the PSC continues to pursue the directives of the President and rationalize its limited resources through innovations in the national and grassroots development programs,’’ Loyzaga said in his resignation letter.
“Among these innovations is the establishment of regional training centers with qualified and certified coaches and trainers,’’ said Loyzaga. /inquirer