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No
unity. Or for the Basketball Association of the
Philippines (BAP), no unity congress, for that matter,
as the national federation put its foot down and stated
it would not join the February 5 gathering of basketball
stakeholders.
BAP
officials came up with the decision after the group held
the election of officers Saturday in
Manila.
“As far
as the BAP is concerned, the SBP is a nonentity,” newly
elected BAP vice chairman Davao Rep. Douglas Cagas said.
Meanwhile, the BAP needs a leader who can bind the two
groups to agreements.
With Go
Teng Kok’s election as BAP president, Samahang Basketbol
ng Pilipinas (SBP) is hopeful Go is that leader.
“You
need someone who can bind that organization to an
agreement. You cannot simply replace [former BAP
presidents] Joey Lina and Sen. [Jinggoy] Estrada then go
back to square one,” Noli Eala, Philippine Basketball
Association (PBA) commissioner and SBP spokesman, said
yesterday.
Eala was
referring to the joint communiqué signed by the BAP and
Pilipinas Basketball last August in
Tokyo in the presence of officials of the International
Basketball Federation (Fiba), in the hopes of lifting
the country’s suspension from global events sanctioned
by the world governing body.
The
agreement, sanctioned by the Fiba’s powerful central
board, is supposed to unite and dissolve the two bodies
under the supervision of a three-man panel, currently
headed by telecom tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, under the
SBP banner.
But the
BAP leadership, after dismissing both Lina and Estrada,
has said the Tokyo accord has not been followed to the
letter and is thus void, a matter disputed by the SBP’s
interim officials led by Pangilinan.
Eala
stressed that what the three-man panel has done so far
is in “full compliance” with the mandate of the
communiqué. The BAP is bound to it, he said, because
Lina—a former senator—and former BAP chairman Michel
Lhuillier both signed the accord as witnesses.
Lina and
Lhuillier had also signed the SBP’s articles of
incorporation filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission as two of 12 BAP nominees to the fledgling
hoops body’s interim board. Pilipinas Basketball also
has a dozen nominees to the board.
Asked if
there was no way out for the old caging body from the
Tokyo accord, Eala said: “Yes, the BAP is bound by the
documents it has signed.”
“We [in
the SBP] do not believe that the agreements that were
entered into were without the authority of the BAP, and
suggestions to the contrary are inconsistent with the
principles of law,” added the PBA chief, a lawyer by
profession.
The BAP,
which still enjoys Fiba recognition, continues to
function as a separate entity. On Saturday night, the
70-year-old cage body elected Go, the controversial
president of the athletics association, as its fourth
president in less than two years.
Replacing Lhuillier, who has said he is prepared to
leave the BAP if it would speed up the unity effort, as
chairman was Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte Sr.
Davao
Rep. Douglas Cagas and former sports commissioner Tisha
Abundo were also named as co-vice chairs in the
elections held at the Century Park Hotel in Manila.
Eala
confirmed that the new BAP officials are invited to come
to the SBP’s unity congress on February 5, which Fiba
officials have said is the last step in fulfilling the
terms of the
Tokyo
agreement. The world governing body also said it would
decide on lifting the suspension on the country after
that date.
“We
certainly hope everybody can go,” the PBA chief said,
adding that the Fiba has required the SBP to provide it
a copy of the notice of the congress to associations
affiliated with both the BAP and Pilipinas Basketball. |
