Story & photo by Mike Besa
ONE of the most difficult things to do in sport is to replace the National Sports Association (NSA) or the governing body of a sport in the country with another. Yet, this is exactly what happened in the sport of motorcycling in the Philippines.
It was the death of Maico Buncio that served as the impetus for this massive change. The Philippines’s most accomplished road racer, Buncio was killed in a high-speed accident at the Clark International Speedway on May 15, 2015.
Buncio’s motorcycle slid and crashed in the runoff area of a right-hand sweeper. Buncio was thrown from his motorcycle and landed on an unfinished barrier on the race track. He was impaled on a protruding portion of rebar, which punctured his internal organs and subsequently killed him. Questions were also raised because of the medical response team’s methods of removing him from the rebar.
This sparked an industry-wide outrage, as an accident of this nature should never have happened on a properly set up track with the necessary safety features and with a properly trained medical team on the premises. This outrage led Ruby Ann Kagaoan on a three-year, worldwide quest to have the former motorcycling NSA replaced for its negligence over the death of the 22-year-old phenom.
In Kagaoan’s words, “The PAMSS is borne out of a three-year fight for the redemption of the Philippine motorcycle-sports community from more than two decades of an abusive and corrupt control of the former motorcycling National Sport Association. It was also stirred by the desire to save thousands upon thousands of lives through a coherent national advocacy for motorcycling and road safety. Moreover, the founders of the PAMSS are in a unique position to bring the Motorcycling World Championships to the Philippines and to give the country a powerful economic engine to drive it out of being a Third World nation into being a First World nation in a short span of time. For these reasons of freedom for the Filipinos, love for country, saving lives and turning the country around, the founders of PAMSS fought with everything they have got, risking all that mattered to them, even their lives and careers, to see this very day happen when they can finally officially represent the country as the motorcycling National Sport Association, set free and unite the Philippine motorcycle-sports community, and be a driving force in bringing unity and peace to our country through sports.”
Because of Kagaoan’s efforts, the Philippine Authority for Motorcycle Sports and Safety (PAMSS) Inc. is the sole motorcycle-sport governing body in the Philippines, fully recognized by the Philippine Government, with its official accreditation by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the highest governmental regulatory national agency in sports attached to the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines, pursuant to PSC Board Resolution 019(B)-2017, effective January 18 and further affirmed as such under Board Resolution 921-2017, effective May 30, “considering the best interest of motorcycle sport, and to put integrity in the governance of Philippine sports, which is impressed with public interest”.
To assist her, Kagaoan enlisted the aid of Michel Turk, vice president of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), the global governing body for motorcycle sports and the global advocate for motorcycling. A lifelong motorcyclist, Turk was taken with Kagaoan’s passion and his desire to show the world and the Philippines that the FIM cares deeply for the welfare and safety of motorcyclists and the sport of motorcycling around the world.
The PAMSS has applied for affiliation with the FIM and awaits its full affiliation during the next FIM General Assembly in the Annual FIM World Congress in November 2017 in Andorra.
Image credits: Mike Besa