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IT’S
another hot summer, sports-wise, like it’s always been,
says my editor, Jun Lomi, who has the (un)enviable job
of watching the whole panorama of summer sports unfold
before his eyes—daily—while the sun blazes overhead.
It’s a
really scorching summer, with the temperature soaring
and tempers flaring—like in the SBP-BAP row, for one.
But more of that later.
The heat
is on, too, in Subic, where the third edition of the
Philippine Olympic Festival is in full swing. This
early, Baguio City is already threatening to do a repeat
of last year’s dominance in the same Central-North Luzon
(CNL) leg. Last year’s CNL overall champs have already
amassed all but one of the gold medals at stake in
centerpiece athletics yesterday at the start of the
third Philippine Olympic Festival here.
Things
are hot, too, in Wack Wack for the Philippine Open,
where Frankie Miñoza holds the Philippine flag aloft
versus other Asian Tour contenders.
And if
you look around your own neighborhoods and enclaves in
the cities and towns and even in remote little barangays
nationwide, you’ll see the intercolor boys and girls
going off to their liga, painting the whole
nation in all the hues of the rainbow. Primary reds,
greens, yellows and blues, or neon oranges and
greens—the colors of their uniforms proudly sponsored by
relatives, corporations, neighborhood associations and
everybody else.
THAT’S
what makes basketball in the Philippines what it is. A
community involvement. A coming together of forces, even
as they lustily compete against each other. A fun
outing. A true samahan.
So
what’s brewing again in the top echelons of the
basketball world in this country? Not a coming together,
I’m afraid. Not a fun outing. And it’s against the
Samahan.
From
what I hear, the BAP has again made its presence felt
with an eyebrow-raising letter to SBP president Manny
Pangilinan accusing MVP of playing favorites—of refusing
to recognize Rep. Luis Villafuerte as “duly elected
chairman of the BAP-SBP,” or the BAP nominees to the
BAP-SBP board of trustees. Worse, it has leveled a very
serious accusation that the SBP prez has rechanneled SBP
funds to a private corporation.
As that
lady in that long-ago Dove commercial said, “Hu-watt???”
(Si MVP, mag ri-rechannel ng
funds? Are you kidding?)
I MEAN,
what does the well-respected Mr. MVP, who is,
incidentally, already Forbes’s 25th richest man, have to
do that for? There simply ain’t no cheap, low tricks in
his track record, for Pete’s sake.
Did he
want this job in the first place? From what we remember,
he was invited, no, requested, cajoled, begged to lead
the organization. Why? Because he was the only one
believed capable of leading the SBP during that crucial
period and getting the entire basketball community
together. Because he, among all others, had the
necessary qualities of an effective basketball
patriarch: universal acceptability, a true interest and
passion for basketball, a dedication to real unity and
the wherewithal to make things happen.
In
truth, we are told, MVP shells out funds from his own
pocket for the sake of SBP. I don’t think he’s the kind
of person who will stoop so low as to milk anything dry.
Which is
why the ordinarily unflappable gentleman is hot and
angry. “I take very strong exception to the points
described in your letter, especially your suggestion of
‘gross bad faith’ to my leadership and misdemeanor in
the handling of certain SBP funds,” he wrote
Representative Villafuerte.
HE
explained to Villafuerte that “your election to the
board can be made effective only upon a vacancy being
created because all board seats were then, as now,
occupied in full.” As to the favoritism accusation, MVP
wrote, “I have indeed raised your chairmanship a number
of times....with the BAP trustees, but no BAP trustee
has to date agreed to either retire or resign.”
He also
explained that “replacements of BAP trustees…can only be
made in a similar way as above described.”
As for
the third and vilest accusation, MVP said: “No
corporation whatsoever has ever been formed to receive
the monies from Tao Corp. and Nokia. But that must not
be the point you make. You suggest that these funds are
diverted for a purpose other than National Basketball
Youth Development, to the detriment of the BAP-SBP. This
is not true at all. I will never tolerate a misdemeanor
of this kind—and neither, I am sure, will Tao Corp. or
Nokia allow this.”
“If
anything, I have been hugely out of pocket financially
personally in support of SBP and its activities since
its inception....In closing, may I say that I find your
letter most offensive, biased and misguided with
disinformation.”
WE hear
basketball stakeholders are equally appalled at the “new
scene” that the BAP is creating. Are they doing this on
purpose so MVP will get tired of it all and resign, so
they can grab the reins of the basketball NSA anew? Are
“special forces” trying to make a comeback and
manipulating all of these?
I have
two more questions to add: Do we want to earn the ire of
the Fiba again? Are we trying to destroy Philippine
basketball?
Former
PBA chairman Rey Gamboa sent this message to MVP just as
I was writing this. “We are here to support your efforts
to keep BAP-SBP free from political intrigues.
Distractions from parties eager to take over will not
deter us in pursuing your laudable BAP-SBP projects.”
And
where will the Fiba side in all this? With the unity
guy, of course. Not the destabilizers. |
