After rains inundated his 30 hectare field which Congressman Mike Romero claims to be of world-class caliber, here we discovered a letter written by him, requesting for a “double bronze” prize for polo participants. Double bronze finishes in a competition which saw only four (4) contenders?
How strange that two countries, the Philippines and Indonesia fought for the bronze medal in the 0-2 polo event when both camps knew that Romero requested for a double bronze place anyway?
For the information of many, Romero hails himself as the “leader” of the Philippine polo team which competed against just three other countries– Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. The Philippine polo team, previously led by industrialist Inigo Zobel, is an internationally recognized team.
Now, the team is being headed by Romero whose record performance as a polo player (zero rating) is, some say, as dismal as his performance as one of this country’s legislators.
The team took part in two (2) events: the 0-2 and the 4-6. A source told this writer that had it been that the Philippine polo team was managed properly, the team could have secured and won two precious gold medals in these two events.
What happened was Romero did some things which offended certain patrons of the sport, including Zobel, the only man recognized by the global polo sport as a legitimate one to represent Filipinos.
What led to Romero asking the SEAgames organizers to consider giving two bronze medal finishes to those who failed to snatch the gold medal win in the 0-2 match events? Well, the polo team which Romero led crumbled to Indonesia, who is the legitimate bronze medal winner. Good to know that the Philippines legitimately snatched a silver in the 4-6 event but no double bronze finishes for Brunei and Indonesia which succumbed to the strong games of Malaysians and Filipinos.
The Indonesians probably did not agree to share the bronze which the Bruneians won out of sheer self-respect. Imagine, playing for the bronze with another when you know that the possibility of awarding a double bronze finish looms? Stupid.
There is a saying that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, right? In the SEAGAMES polo, this curiously does not apply. How humiliating!
