‘Caught by surprise’

PHILIPPINE men’s national team manager Dan Palami is crying foul on what he considered as a violation of his right to due process after the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) Disciplinary Committee meted him and coach Michael Weiss a two- game suspension.

The sanction was part of the decision released by the disciplinary body, which dismissed the sexual harassment charges filed by match commissioner Cristy Ramos against Lexton Moy and Angel Guirado. Moy, Guirado, team captain James Young-husband and Denis Wolf got a one-match ban for breakdown of discipline, while Palami, and Weiss got a two-game suspension for “failure of leadership.”

Edzel Bracamonte got one game, also for “failure of leadership.”

“We are appealing that portion of the decision where the parties who were not respondents to the case were given suspensions,” said Palami.

He added that the arbitrary decision deprived them of due process as there should have been a complaint filed prior to it.

“At the very least, we should have been informed of the charges against us and we should have been given the opportunity to answer,” he said.

Palami will file a notice of appeal to the PFF disciplinary body so that the jurisdiction will remain with the committee.

“I wouldn’t really mind being suspended if it was carried out right but the issue here is on violation of due process. Why would you penalize someone who was not a party in the complaint?” asked Palami.

As to the reasoning that the team manager should be responsible for the acts of his players, Palami said that he still deserved the right to be heard.

“That’s already the substantive aspect of the case. The issue here is whether there was procedural due process,” said Palami.