Kurt is one of our good friends from Manila and we had the pleasure of having a coffee date with him during our recent vacation. He shared with us the wonderful journey of the Philippine Dragon Boat Team and their achievements. Hearing Kurt's stories would make any Filipino proud.
The Philippine Dragon Boat Team has been featured in TV Patrol. As the team is getting ready for another tournament in August in Florida, USA, they are hoping for the Philippine Government's support. Hence, the email from Kurt below.
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
My Dear Friends, Blogmates, Tweetmates & Plurkmates,
Please help support this cause by sharing Kurt's email via your blog/s, twitter, facebook or plurk pages. If you would like to link this blog entry up, please feel free to do so. The Philippine Dragon Boat Team hopes that thru the power of the internet, their voices will be heard and that the support due them will be given by the government.
Thank you very much,
Ibyang
