this is just to share Ibyang’s post on the Philippine Dragon Boat Team, and Kurt’s (a paddler) open letter to our dear, dear President. (excuse the sarcasm. it couldn’t be helped.)
Dear President Benigno ‘Nonoy’ Aquino,
I would like to seek help from your office to give immediate attention and guidance to the current situation of the dragon boat sport in this country.
The Filipino dragon boat paddlers under the supervision of the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation or PDBF brought home numerous international awards in this sport, defending WORLD CHAMPIONS and WORLD RECORD HOLDER to name a few, yet the Philippine Sports Commission do not recognize the federation, stripped down all its rights as member of NSA without any clear or justifiable reasons, and created a separate dragon boat national team under the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation or PCKF.
Current statistics show that PCKF has around 40-50 members only compared to PDBFs more than a thousand members. PDBF is the ONLY RECOGNIZED dragon boat association in the Philippines by the International Dragon Boat Federation or IDBF. From the latest letter of IDBF President to PDBF, only paddlers recognized by or members of PDBF will be allowed to race in local, regional, continental, and world dragon boat competitions for as long as it is governed or supervised by IDBF.
By stripping down the rights of PDBF from the NSA, PCKF will take over all of the existing rights and properties of PDBF including government funding to the WORLD CHAMPIONS, the Philippine Dragon Boat National Team.
And at the end of this month, PCKF will get ALL the dragon boats parked at Manila Bay and will make PDBF dragon boat paddlers unable to train for the upcoming competitions this September in Florida-USA for the World Championships and SAVA Sprints Singapore wherein FILIPINOS ARE THE DEFENDING CHAMPIONS.
As a paddler, a public relations practitioner, and as a Filipino, I am asking for your utmost consideration to look at the current situation of the sport where we excel, and help save Philippine dragon boat from doom.
I hope that you can lend the federation your liberal ear to discuss this important matter with you and help our athletes defend their WORLD TITLE.
Respectfully yours,
Kurt Urbanozo
Member, Philippine Dragon Boat Federation
not sure what Kurt is talking about regarding “defending champions”? here’s a Youtube clip on their dilemma on TV Patrol:
why the politics? why the lack of funding? to some, it may not be as exciting as seeing Manny Pacquiao in the ring but it still is something that these brave hearts that bring home honor for the country, not just themselves! heck, if you think the Younghusbands are “hunky”, get a load of these bods:
all that hotness talent gone to waste if we don’t let them compete and not support them. come on Mr. President… show some support.
at wit's end 
thanks for sharing this Bursky. i really appreciate it! 🙂
Oh we have to share this!
Oh my. Those bods are to-die-for! On a different note, sports, for a very long time now, has taken the back seat and has been taken for granted in this country. We have so many talented athletes that can really take sports to the next level but I still can’t understand why the Philippine Gov’t doesn’t see it’s people’s potentials.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
This is a sick story. Everybody’s going gaga over the azkals and just recently the Volcanoes Phil. Rugby team yet these racers were left out. Let’s just donate whatever we can to help this team. Defending champion pa naman.
grabe ang katawan naman nila hahaha