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Saturday, June 04, 2005
Oyson: GAB accuses PBA of breaking the law
By Manuel N. Oyson, Jr.
Counter Punch
What’s with the Games and Amusements Board? Doesn’t it have anything better to do than run after the Philippine Basketball Association and its chief, Noli Eala, for alleged infractions of a presidential decree? This so-called PD 871 is an old law because this is the first time I have heard of it. The said decree requires the PBA commissioners and all employees under them to secure a license from the GAB before they can be recognized to do business.
Thus, GAB chairman Eric Buhain recently announced that since the PBA, being a sports body under the jurisdiction of the GAB as well as Eala, has not secured a license, ergo, he is not going to deal with Eala and company.
Ludicrous is the way I look at it. Why only now has the GAB come about to remind the PBA of its supervisory power over the latter, 30 years after the PBA was born?
PIQUE. This is like quibbling over a trifling matter. A matter of pique over turf. Doesn’t the GAB have anything else better to do? Why doesn’t it assist former world featherweight champion Luisito Espinosa get his unpaid balance of $130,000 (P8 million) in a title fight seven years ago? Or look into the report that another Filipino who sported the ring name Tata Polinar, who recently fought and lost in Thailand.
Polinar reportedly used the name of another Filipino boxer of the same name who was all the time practicing in a Cebu City gym at the time the imposter was fighting in Thailand. This is the second such incident has been reported. Before I proceed, this is not a brief for Eala, a lawyer who, I believe, can ably defend himself and his agency, an autonomous body since it was formed, from such childless accusation.
MISUNDERSTANDING. But it would seem that it is only a matter of what PD 871 is all about. Eala claimed that this is a case of misunderstanding and differences of interpretation of PD 871. Eala explained that those who are required to secure licenses are not the officials who run the PBA but those who are actually part of the games, like the referees, table officials, scorers, players and coaches.
A later amendment to said decree requires that all rules and amendments made after Jan. 12, 1988 be submitted to the GAB before implementation.
The GAB also warned of sanctions to be imposed if the PBA persists to operate without complying with laws. When reminded that no PBA commissioner in the past was asked to apply for a GAB license Buhain replied that it was beside the point.
SANCTIONS. He said that although past commissioners might not have been asked or required to be licensed, he stressed that the law requires Eala and all PBA personnel to be licensed, as the GAB now is reminding them. Buhain and the other GAB commissioners, Angel Bautista and Alex Paglumotan, who wrote the joint reminder to Eala last May 19, did not say what sanctions may be imposed on the PBA.
The GAB only warned of sanctions to be imposed on the PBA should it continue to operate without complying with the prerequisites of PD 871. And take note: The suspensions meted on several Fil-Americans because of their questionable citizenship papers were also violative of PD 871 because they were not submitted to the GAB for approval. As they say on the telenovelas, “Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY: ’The law still requires him (Eala) to be licensed.’ – GAB chairman Eric Buhain
(mno@sunstar.com.ph)
(June 4, 2005 issue)
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