To me, as someone very familiar with nations few steps above but still plagued with the same problems (not enough professional players, a massive number of potential NT players "lost to adulthood", etc.), cjeagle sounds like someone who has so much enthusiasm but is before the stage where any kind of reality sets in.
"they do commit to train regularly during their free time usually in the late evening for months at a time to prepare for the tournament", "They train almost every day before the tournament for months at a time", "they have physiotherapists and dietitians monitoring their training when they are also not on the ice" - this all sounds so rosy. As someone who has seen this situation from very close with players who, with all due respect to Philippinos, could have competed at a much higher level, I would be shocked if 1) this all applied to more than a few hardcore guys; 2) if it did apply to a larger group I doubt many will follow through with any kind of commitment rather than it being "once in a lifetime" event.
And it applies to pretty much every country below the D1A (the real one, not the current one). If you don't have a professional league and/or core (at least) of players playing professionally, you aren't going to have a group of 30 men over the age of 25 to whom hockey will be a priority. In the world of family, job, business, travel, etc. it will just never be the case. And it subsequently makes any progress of the national program so much tougher.
As is the case with any number of countries in the world, the main question is not "if they can do that" but "why would they do that?". Most countries aren't interested in hockey not because it's expensive but because they see no reason to be. The same applies to the Philippines. If they decided to invest more in sports, why would it be hockey and not any number of other, much more sensible options?
