Here’s the third and final installment of our 10-item wish list for Philippine sports in Year 2012.

3. Concentrate on the Three Bees – Boxing, Bowling and Billiards

We Filipinos take sports like a duck takes to water. Any Pinoy sports fan worth his salt nonetheless knows that we can no longer excel in international basketball. Within the Southeast Asian community, our country may be unbeatable, at least for now. But as far as the Asian competitions – let alone at the World level – are concerned, the Philippines has lagged so far behind from its dominating position between the 1920s and early 1970s.

While it’s true that basketball has been our national pastime since time immemorial, the game has also grown by leaps and bounds not only in Asia but throughout the globe.

The last time our national basketball team saw action in the Summer Olympics was in 1972 in Munich, Germany. Excluding for the 1978 World Championship that was hosted by Manila, the Filipinos have not qualified for the biennial showcase since the games in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1974 where they placed 13th among 16 participants.

Let’s forget international basketball and concentrate instead on the three other “B” sports – boxing (amateur and pro levels), bowling and billiards. Add to the list taekwondo and chess, too.

At the moment, professional boxing (with four Filipino world titlists) is enjoying a boom. Amateur boxing has had some success under a National Sports Association (NSA) that is well organized and efficiently run by its leadership.

Bowling is experiencing some difficulty in the post-Paeng Nepomuceno era and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games medalist Biboy Rivera is not getting any younger. But this sport is well designed for the Filipino athlete since, like boxing, height is not an issue here.

Billiards has had a lot of heroes through the last two decades. Among them are Efren (Bata) Reyes, Francisco (Djanggo) Bustamante, Alex Pagulayan, Ronnie (The Volcano) Alcano and now, Dennis Orcullo.

One of only three Filipino gold medalists in the 2010 Guangzhou Asiad, the 32-year-old Orcullo was named the 2011 Player of the Year by the World Pool and Billiard Association (WPA) for his various international achievements.

Last year, the Surigao del Sur native won the Derby City 9-Ball tournament in Louisville, ruled the World 8-Ball competitions in the United Arab Emirates, topped the Predator International 10-Ball event in the Philippines and earned a gold medal in the Southeast Asian Games in Indonesia.

Unfortunately, bowling and billiards are not part of the Olympic sports program.

2. Even without the Philippines, the London Bridge Won’t Fall Down during the Olympics

The 30th Summer Olympic Games will be held in London, England from July 27 to August 12 this year.

In the spirit of international brotherhood and solidarity, let us just send a token number of athletes to the Olympiad (assuming that they have met the qualifying standards). Our chances for a first-ever gold remain slim.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the country was represented by 15 athletes, who competed in 17 events across eight sports. Though several national records were shattered in swimming and weightlifting events, the Filipinos failed to win a single medal for the third consecutive Olympiad.

Worse, all of our athletes did not survive past their preliminary-round competitions.

Don’t put taxpayer’s money to waste by sending a big delegation to the London Olympics. Queen Elizabeth might not even have time to greet our athletes anyway

1. A Massive Revamp of the Local Sports Hierarchy

Every Olympic year, a general assessment of Philippine sports is made. For the past two decades, though, the major issue up for discussion has always centered on the poor performance of our athletes.

Don’t look far to find the “real” reasons for the humiliating defeats that we have experienced in the various international battle fronts year in and year out. The fault does not wholly lie in the athletes. The sports leadership has to take much of the blame for its inability to inspire.

Some National Sports Association leaders have stayed too long and timid without any creditable accomplishments to boast. Can you honestly still support the underperforming swimming executive whose head is even wanted by the Ombudsman for plunder and whose sports did not produce a single gold medal during the 2011 Southeast Asian Games?

What about the aging and arrogant national sports leaders who shamelessly cling to power through political patronage?

The die is cast. A massive leadership change is needed in local sports. Let the young athletic-minded turks with unadulterated idealism and purity in their hearts take over the helm. The sooner it comes, the better for Philippine sports.