Mitra: I didn’t say boxing is dying

May I please be allowed to react to Recah Trinidad’s Bare Eye column titled “Is Philippine boxing really dying?” (Sports, 12/7/16) where I was quoted as saying that Philippine boxing was dying.

First of all, please note that I was never quoted in any article or from any of the many interviews, public appearances, dialogues, congressional hearings, etc. I participated in as saying that boxing was dying.

It is sad that Trinidad has not been part of any of the many dialogues we have conducted with sportswriters, managers, boxers, promoters, boxing officials, etc. Thus, he is not aware of what we have been doing in the Games and Amusements Board  (GAB) since we took office upon the appointment of President Duterte. Why should Trinidad say that GAB is the problem when he has not been to GAB or talked to anybody there since the new administration took office?

Please allow me to state that since we took oath, we have instituted reforms and innovated policies/past decisions to help boost boxing. I always believe that to solve a problem, we should know and acknowledge the problem. Trinidad, in his long years in sports, should first find out what we did or, in the spirit of true journalism, should get our side. I challenge him to compare what he has done in the years he was exposed to boxing to what we have accomplished here in GAB for the last four months. It is true that there has been a steady decline of professional boxers from 1,500 five years ago to just 642, and the numbers don’t lie.

We have come out of and have even gone beyond our own mandate—from ensuring the welfare of boxers to encouraging possible sponsors and supporters of boxers and boxing promotions, as well as making representations with friendly congressmen to add funds for the welfare of boxers and other professional athletes.

ABRAHAM KAHLIL B. MITRA, chair, Games and Amusements Board