Who dropped the ball?

The suspension will be a major blow to Filipino athletes, especially those bidding to see action in the Paris Olympics.

No amount of spinning or sugarcoating can hide the fact that the Philippines is on the brink of being banned from the international sports arena after it failed to comply with several critical requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

WADA had given the Filipinos all the chances to comply.

In fact, as far back as September, it reached out to the Philippine Sports Commission and its anti-doping arm — the Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization — to remind them to comply with the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories.

The Montreal-based anti-doping watchdog requires all its member countries to report compliance with the ISCCS standards on anti-doping to ensure clean athletes, fair competition, and a level playing field.

But ranking Filipino sports officials simply brushed this off.

With that, WADA sent another notice last January, threatening to suspend the country from major international competitions if it did not comply with the ISCCS — or the WADA code — in the next 21 days.

The suspension will be a major blow to Filipino athletes, especially those bidding to see action in the Paris Olympics.

Although they can still compete in the Summer Games, Filipino athletes will have to march under a neutral flag — or that of the International Olympic Committee — together with bets from suspended countries and refugees.

If that happens, it will be heartbreaking as the Philippines will celebrate its 100th year of Olympic participation when Paris hosts the Summer Games from 26 July to 11 August.

The PSC appealed, but it was too late as WADA had already referred its case to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sports, signaling the start of a lengthy and costly legal process.

According to Philippine National Anti-Doping Organization representative Nathan Vasquez, there are four things that they need to accomplish before becoming fully compliant with the WADA code: the open testing distribution program, athletes’ biological passports; the registration testing pool and results management.

Vasquez said that, so far, they have completed two items. They are halfway through the third and are starting to work on the fourth.

Meanwhile, the PSC is trying to calm the alarmed local sports community.

PSC Executive Director Paulo Tatad allayed fears of a possible suspension, saying that everything is under control as the rest will not take effect until the CAS formally makes a final decision.

He said they were taking all the corrective actions and fulfilling all the requirements to formally comply with the WADA code. In fact, they sat down with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last Friday to solicit his support and prevent the WADA and CAS from imposing international sanctions.

After all, the Philippines is in the same boat as Nigeria and Venezuela, two countries that also appealed their cases before the CAS after being found non-compliant with the WADA code. Angola’s situation is even worse after it admitted that it had failed to comply, making its suspension inevitable.

Non-compliance with the WADA code is a serious blunder.

Aside from putting the country’s standing in the international sports community at great risk, it will demoralize the athletes, leaving them with tons of questions, among them whether they should still continue their training or just kiss their dreams of representing the country goodbye.

At this point, no one is owning up to the mess. No one is admitting who dropped the ball. Aside from assuring that everything is under control, the PSC is quiet while the Phinado is not making an effort to explain thoroughly what really happened behind the scenes.

But somebody must be held accountable. The President, who assumed the role of chief supporter of the national athletes, must crack the whip while legislators should launch an inquiry to delve deep into this controversy while empowering Phinado to avoid a similar incident in the future.

Yes, corrective actions are already being taken.

But that’s not the issue. The issue is how we got here and how we can avoid getting involved in a similar controversy that could lead to international pain and embarrassment, especially to the athletes working hard to bring pride and glory to the country.

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