by: PO3 Noelle Cristina Wenceslao (PCG)
PO3 Noelle Cristina Wenceslao of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is one of the first 3 Filipinas to have reached the top of Mt Everest. She and her 2 other groupmates did it in 2008. Noelle used to be a member of the prestigious Philippine Dragon Boat Team, from the time it was with the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF) until the team was forcibly transferred to the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation (PCKF) in 2011. In 2013, the team filed a complaint against the PCKF leadership and the head coach. This is her story:
Dragon Boating is one sport we can excel in. Unfortunately, the bickering, the disunity sowed has led to its deterioration. (MB Sports)
On July 12 , 2013, we wrote a letter addressed to both the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) requesting for an investigation of two (2) officials of the PCKF: Acting president Jonne Go and head coach Ms Leonora Escollante on allegations of unethical conduct and questionable disbursement of funds. These are violations which Ms Escollante had previously been penalized for by the PSC.Â
The immediate action taken by Ms Go is to unduly terminate the twenty-five (25) athletes and three (3) coaches, representing 95% of the national pool, who filed the complaint. This act is in direct violation of paragraph no. 25 of the POC-PSC-NSA Tripartite Agreement dated 11 January 1993.
Consequently, we were put on âfloatingâ status pending the resolution of the complaint. Likewise, we have been verbally informed by POC that all trainings have to be discontinued and were denied access to the dragon boats situated at the CPPâs dock site. Worse, our South East Asian Games (SEA Games) berth was revoked and our allowance and benefits, from which we derive our meager income, were put on hold pending the final determination of the case by the POC Arbitration Committee. PCKF officials also released Memorandum Circular Nr 08-2013 effectively banning the coaches and athletes from the CCP Training Site, as well as all PCKF-sanctioned or managed activities. A number of coaches and athletes were also handling recreational teams of their own for added income, but the ban rendered them unable to perform their duties to the teams that they were handling
There are no allegations against us coaches and athletes, and we have actually satisfied the qualification criteria for the SEAG. The investigation is, in fact, directed towards the NSA officials with us as the complainants. Our sole request of the athletes and coaches is an investigation of two (2) of our officials in the PCKF. We have no wish whatsoever to separate from our fine organization.
We have already sent letters to the Philippine Sports Commission and the Arbitration Committee of the POC requesting for provisional relief and immediate disposition of the case based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds but our request fell on deaf ears.
The POC and PCKF may have the right and power to determine its organization and membership. However, we feel that it is unjust for us to be stripped of our basic benefits and our well-deserved opportunity to represent the country in the SEA Games, just because we chose to bring to light the anomalies that we have experienced at the hands of our officials â the supposed stewards of our Sport.
We followed strict protocol, stretched our forbearance and good faith in our sports governing bodies, even as five (5) months had passed without a proper investigation and resolution.
On 06 November, the Arbitration Committee released an official ârecommendation,â claiming to only be a recommending body, rather than the Arbitration Committee that it is named. The recommendation failed to address the issue of the misused funds, but at the same time recommended that there be better auditing. According to the Arbitration Committee, the POC Board, of which respondent Jonne Go is a member, will have to give its final decision based on their recommendation. (Edâs note: In cases like this, the respondent â Jonnie Go â should have inhibited herself from the investigation proceedings.)
Although many POC Board Meetings have passed and follow-ups have been written, the POC Board has yet to release their final decision, and the athletes and coaches remain uncertain and without compensation.
Meanwhile, the PCKF carries on as usual, having formed a ânewâ National Team, organizing events and sending canoe and kayak delegates to the SEAG.
â  â  â  â  â
Wency answers questions at the Senate Hearing. It didnt matter, the POCs minds were made up. (Rappler)
On 24 July 2013, they wrote another letter: SUBJECT:âThe Current Situation of the National Dragon Boat Team regarding the Appeal to POC to Investigate the Leaders of their National Sports Association We, the coaches and athletes of the national dragon boat team, would like to humbly share with you our current situation. The National Dragon Boat Team is under the Philippine Canoe and Kayak Federation (PCKF), which has been our National Sports Association (NSA) since 2011. Under this NSA, we won a Gold medal in the 26th South East Asian Games 2011 in Jakarta. We also won 6 Gold medals in the International Canoe Federation World Dragon Boat Championships 2012 in Milan Italy. We submitted a Petition, dated 12 July 2013, appealing to both the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) to investigate PCKF Acting President Ms. Jonne Go and PCKF Head Coach Ms. Leonora Escollante on allegations of corruption and harassment. On 16 July 2013, we were given an audience with POC President Jose Cojuangco, Jr. and PSC Chairman Ricardo Garcia. At the meeting, we detailed the complaints and contentions being referred to in the Petition. Put briefly, they are: 1) That we were neither informed of nor given the full amount of our personal travel allowances and meal allowances. 2) That there was little to no transparency in the disbursement of the team funds. 3) That we were falsely told that our coach had not been included in the PSC budget. We gave part of our personal travel allowance in order to shoulder his travel expenses, which were in fact already covered by PSC. 4) That there are names of unknown persons listed in the PSC payroll for Dragon Boat, while the actual recruits who have been training with us since January 2011 could not be approved for payroll. 5) That there have been incidences of unwarranted verbal abuse from both Ms. Escollante and Ms. Go. 6) That we were constantly threatened to be removed from the team, if we did not comply with their wishes. 7) That we were forced to sign an acknowledgement receipt for the liquidation of PSC funding. We did not receive the stated amount, but those who refused to sign were promptly threatened. đ That ALL the coaches and athletes were issued âcourtesy resignationâ letters, which concluded the meeting that was intended to work out the problems. The Team Captain was issued a termination letter. 9) That there are numerous accounts of misconduct displayed by both Ms. Escollante and Ms. Go, such their observably consuming alcohol during at the teamâs holding area during international competition. Afterwards, Hon. Cojuangco said that we should submit a Position Paper detailing the claims and contentions that we speak of. He will immediately form an investigatory committee to look into the claims in the said Position Paper. He also said: ⢠That the other national athletes do not complain. When they find out that we [the coaches and athletes of the national dragon boat team] complained, they will think, âWhat makes you better than them?â Then all the other athletes will start to complain, too. ⢠That, âWag niyo gagawin dahilan ang pera. People will not look kindly at you. May trabaho ka na. Coaches and athletes are here for the glory of our country and not to make money.â ⢠That we should have approached him only and no longer involved PSC. In going to PSC, we effectively bypassed POC. PSC is a government agency, and that is what we are carefully protecting against: âgovernment interference.â ⢠That you are disregarding your officials and in doing so are disregarding your NSA. ⢠That POC is the only body that can certify our team to compete in the 27th South East Asian Games (SEA Games). And that, âEven if your association folds, we can always form a new team.â ⢠That, âPag na-publish ito sa mga diyaryo patay na. So be careful. You are not only damaging yourself; you are damaging all of Philippine Sports.â The meeting ended at around 6:00 PM. By 7:33 PM of the same date, the so called âclosed-door meetingâ was published on the SPIN.ph. In the days that followed, more articles were released with direct quotes from POC President Cojuangco, PSC Chairman Garcia, Ms. Leonora Escollante, Ms. Jonne Go and a âreliable source.â We, the coaches and athletes of the National Dragon Boat Team, continue to comply with their wishes and have not released any statement to the media. On the articles, we read that there is a stand-off or âbickeringâ between the athletes and PCKF (as an entirety). Our complaints were linked to the past issue concerning our former NSA, the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF). We also read in several articles that our services have, in fact, already been terminated by PCKF as national coaches and athletes. The following are links to some of the online articles concerning this issue: http://www.spin.ph/sports/outdoor-sports/news/trouble-brewing-as-dragon-boat-team-airs-gripes http://sports.inquirer.net/110113/poc-to-look-into-dragon-boat-paddlers-complaint http://www.spin.ph/sports/psc-poc/news/bickering-leaves-dragon-boats-seag-stint-in-peril http://www.balita.net.ph/2013/07/20/mga-pasaway-sinibak-sa-dragonboat/#.Ue5wuG34tWU http://www.spin.ph/sports/psc-poc/news/psc-on-dragon-boat-issue-pckf http://www.abante-tonite.com/issue/july2113/sports_story08.htm#.Ue-WLZERWSx https://www.balita.net.ph/2013/07/23/dragonboat-team-tinanggalan-ng-allowance/#.Ue9udpERWSw
 Also attached is an appeal letter that we addressed to POC following the press releases from POC and PCKF.
To summarize, we, the athletes and coaches of the National Dragon Boat Team, under our NSA, the PCKF, appealed to both the POC and the PSC to look into our complaints regarding our NSA Acting President and our NSA Head Coach. Indeed, problems within the NSA should be settled internally. However, if this fails, the POC is the higher body that exercises influence over the NSAâs, autonomy notwithstanding. Also, the contentions regarding misused government funds are the concern of the PSC. It has happened before. In 2007, the national athletes of canoe and kayak under the PCKF submitted a formal complaint against Ms. Leonora Escollante, claiming that she strikes them and hurts them physically when they do not comply with her wishes. They also claim that she collects their PSC payroll ATM, and only a fraction or none of their personal allowance reaches them. The ruling was that PSC suspended Ms. Escollante from the payroll. At present, and by means unknown to us, she has reclaimed her position as Head Coach of PCKF, and there are complaints anew. We share this with you, because we have reached this point with no legal counsel. We have been relying solely on the conviction of the truth and of what is universally right. We have come to the sobering realization that the outcome of our appeal and the consequent investigation will be decided by men who may resort to intricate technicalities which we, as coaches and athletes, are not capable of responding to or defending against. As yet, we have knowingly put our entire careers (i.e. way of life) as national coaches and athletes, as well as our monthly allowance and the chance to compete in the SEA Games, on the line for this investigation, because we firmly believe and stand behind our claims. We are humble coaches and athletes taking on the giants in sports and politics. We only wish to have a fair chance to defend our cause. Ultimately, our aim is the betterment of our organization, more conducive to the pursuit of excellence, for generations of athletes to come.
This sob story has been replicated countless times, with athletes placed at the mercy of officials whose primary concern is only to themselves. Wenceslao and her teammates had been national paddlers of good standing during their days in the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF). However, it was after they were absorbed by the PCKF that they experienced the physical and financial abuse. The sad part here is that Peping and his mafia believed and protected Jonne Go, instead of the 28 coaches and athletes.  Â
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Being an archipelagic countryâŚ
The Philippines carries a great advantageâŚ
Paddling comes naturallyâŚ
Our size and build is not an unfair disadvantageâŚ
Even our ladies have a great chance to be world champsâŚ
Even our PWDs have been given a wonderful opportunity with dragonboating.
  A Paddlerâs Story by: PO3 Noelle Cristina Wenceslao (PCG) PO3 Noelle Cristina Wenceslao of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is one of the first 3 Filipinas to have reached the top of Mt Everest.
