Don’t just wave the flag. Build the athlete.

By IVY BETALMOS

For years, Filipinos have celebrated athletes only after they have conquered the world. We gather around television screens, flood social media with congratulations, wave the Philippine flag, sing the national anthem, and proudly claim their victories as our own. But it is time to ask a more uncomfortable question, “Where were we when these champions were still discovering themselves? A champion does not simply appear on a podium. Behind every medal is a childhood filled with discipline, sacrifice, training, setbacks, and countless hours of preparation long before the world learns an athlete’s name. Talent may open the door, but opportunity determines whether a young athlete gets the chance to walk through it. This is the thinking behind the proposed Bohol Island State University Tourism and Sports Institute in Balilihan.

Bohol does not have to imagine what sporting excellence looks like. We have seen it in our own people. From Balilihan comes Angge Poyos, who has risen to become a prominent collegiate volleyball player with the University of Santo Tomas. From Catigbian came Luke Dacula, a pioneer of the Philippine Basketball Association who played in the league’s historic first game. Tagbilaran has produced basketball names such as Bernard “Bernie” Fabiosa and Peter Naron, who reached the professional league. In boxing, Bohol has produced world-class fighters such as Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire Jr., born in Talibon, and Mark “Magnifico” Magsayo, born in Tagbilaran City and former WBC featherweight world champion. Long before them, Boholano Simeon Toribio represented the Philippines in three Olympic Games, was recognized as “Asia’s Greatest Athlete” in 1930, and won a bronze medal in the high jump at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

These names prove something important: the talent is already here. Bohol has never been short of athletes capable of carrying the province’s name beyond its borders. The question is whether the next generation will be given an even better environment in which to develop that talent. The proposed BISU Tourism and Sports Institute is therefore not simply about constructing another sports facility. It is about creating an institution where young Filipinos can discover their potential, receive quality training, pursue education, and compete at a level that can prepare them for the international stage.

The proposal was originally filed as House Bill No. 9901 during the 19th Congress and is now being pursued in the 20th Congress as House Bill No. 8875. The current measure has been associated with Murang Kuryente Party-list Representative Arthur C. Yap, who has taken up the project originally championed by former Bohol First District Representative Edgar M. Chatto. The House Committee on Higher and Technical Education approved HB 8875 in June 2026. The proposal represents an attempt to bring together education, sports, tourism, and economic opportunity rather than treating sports development as something that matters only when an athlete is already winning medals.

But the real question is not whether Bohol needs another building. It is whether the Philippines is finally ready to invest in champions before they become champions. Consider Alex Eala. At only 13 years old, the Filipina tennis player left home for Spain to train at the Rafa Nadal Academy after earning a scholarship. There, high-level coaching, facilities, competition, and education worked together to develop her potential. Years later, the world would know her name and Filipinos would celebrate her victories with immense pride. Yet her story exposes an uncomfortable reality. Sometimes, Filipino athletes must leave the Philippines to find the environment they need to become world-class. Why should that always be the case?

What if the next Alex Eala is growing up today in Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, or a remote municipality where talent exists but facilities do not? What if the next Angge Poyos is practicing on a modest court today, dreaming of competing at the highest level tomorrow? What if another young boxer with the potential of Magsayo or Donaire is throwing his first punches without access to the coaching, equipment, nutrition, sports science, and competition necessary to turn raw talent into excellence? What if another high jumper carries the potential of Simeon Toribio but never gets the opportunity to discover how high he can truly leap? Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not.

And Bohol’s challenge is not simply about producing athletes. It is also about creating a province capable of welcoming the biggest sporting opportunities. Bohol has not yet hosted the Palarong Pambansa, and the province has previously identified the lack of international-standard sports facilities as one reason it has missed opportunities to host major national sporting events. In 2025, Bohol was already eyeing the hosting of major sports events, including the Palaro, with infrastructure, transportation, and billeting among the concerns that needed to be addressed. Yet in 2026, Boholano athletes demonstrated that the province has no shortage of talent. Competing as part of Central Visayas in the Palarong Pambansa in Agusan del Sur, they contributed to a historic performance that helped the region secure fourth place overall.

That contrast should make us think. Bohol has the athletes. But do we have the facilities to match their dreams? We can send our young athletes elsewhere to compete, train, and chase opportunities. But why should Bohol always be the province that sends its talent away instead of becoming the province that welcomes talent in? Why should our young athletes have to travel outside the island simply to experience facilities and programs that could, with the right investment, exist here?

This is where BISU Tourism and Sports Institute can become more than a sports project. It can become a Visayas laboratory for sports and tourism development, a place where athletes are discovered and trained, coaches are developed, tourism students gain hands-on experience, and future tourism frontline professionals are prepared for the demands of a global industry. Its facilities could become venues for regional, national, and international sports and tourism events. Athletes, coaches, officials, tourists, families, and spectators would bring economic activity with them. Hotels gain guests. Restaurants gain customers. Transportation providers gain passengers. Local entrepreneurs gain markets. Communities gain opportunities. Sports, when properly developed, is not merely about medals. It can become an economic ecosystem connecting education, tourism, employment, and local development.

But infrastructure alone will never produce champions. A world-class building without world-class programs is simply an expensive building. If the institute is to fulfill its promise, it must become more than courts, classrooms, and grandstands. It must identify young talent early, provide scholarships, develop qualified coaches, offer sports science and medical support, create pathways to national and international competitions, and allow athletes to pursue education while pursuing excellence. It must have a system that protects athletes from being forced to choose between education and sports. It must provide opportunities not only for those who can afford them, but also for talented young Filipinos whose greatest limitation is the absence of resources.

And this is where the government must be held accountable.

If the country can dream of world-class development, then it must also be willing to invest in the people who will carry that development forward. If government officials want young Filipinos to believe in the future of this country, they must show them that their dreams are worth investing in. The youth do not need another speech telling them to dream big. They need institutions that give them a reason to believe those dreams are possible.

We should not wait until an athlete is standing on an international podium before proudly claiming them as our own. We should be there when they are eight, ten, or thirteen; when they lose their first major competition; when they cannot afford equipment; when they struggle with confidence; and especially when they are tempted to quit. That is where genuine sports development begins. The world sees the medal, but the nation must be willing to invest in everything that comes before it. A championship may last for a moment, but the years that produce it require commitment from government, institutions, communities, private organizations, coaches, families, and athletes themselves.

The Philippines cannot continue being merely a nation of spectators celebrating champions after someone else helped build them. Bohol, of all places, should understand this. We have already watched our own athletes rise from local communities to national arenas and international stages. We have watched Boholano victories become our victories. But imagine what could happen if the next generation had access to world-class facilities and programs without having to leave home just to find them.

Building an institute of this scale will not be easy. It will require substantial public investment, careful planning, professional management, sustained funding, maintenance, qualified personnel, and transparent implementation. The answer cannot simply be to build and forget. The real test begins after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, when the cameras leave and the young athletes arrive. Will the facilities remain world-class? Will scholarships reach those who need them? Will programs continue beyond political terms? Will athletes be given genuine pathways to national and international competition? These are the questions the government must answer.

Because the measure of BISU Tourism and Sports Institute should never be the size of its buildings or the grandeur of its opening ceremony. Its success should be measured by how many young Filipinos receive opportunities they otherwise would never have had, how many athletes are discovered, how many scholarships are provided, how many coaches are developed, how many competitions are hosted, how many tourism professionals are trained, and how many jobs and livelihoods are created. Ultimately, its greatest achievement would not be the building itself, but the human potential developed within it.

One day, another Filipino child may stand on a world championship podium. The cameras will focus on that athlete. The country will celebrate. Government officials, private organizations, schools, and communities will proudly congratulate the new champion. But the sweetest recognition will be if we can honestly say, “We were there before the world knew your name.” We were there when you were learning, failing, dreaming, and fighting to become better. We invested not only when the medal was within reach, but when winning one was still nothing more than a child’s dream.

That is the sports culture the Philippines should build, not one that appears only when victory arrives, but one that stays while the athlete is still struggling toward it, not one that celebrates medals after they are won, but one that invests in the child before the medal is even imaginable. Champions should not always have to leave their country to discover how far they can go. Bohol already has the proof that greatness can come from its own communities. The question now is whether we are willing to give that greatness a place to grow.

Bohol already has the talent. The Philippines already has dreams. What we need now is the courage to build the opportunity.

If Bohol can build an institution where Filipino talent is discovered, trained, educated, supported, and given a pathway to the world stage, then the BISU Tourism and Sports Institute will be more than a structure in Balilihan. It will be a declaration that the Philippines is finally ready to stop waiting for champions and start building them.

Let the dream become a reality.