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Sunday, September 18, 2005
Sayson: The illusive truth
By Homer Sayson
Second Overtime
CHICAGO – The Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc., in its earnest desire to remove the stench brought by the brawl between players of the University of San Carlos and University of Cebu last Sunday, did not pull any stops when its investigation marched to a more delicate phase.
The inquiry, held yesterday behind the locked doors of Green Lancers team manager Gerald “Didi” Gullas’ office, was quite a festival, I was told by an insider who witnessed the proceedings first hand.
Judge Reynoso Belarmino and lawyer Joseph Baduel were mobilized to flank Cesafi commissioner Danny Duran in the search for justice. The intimidating presence of two of Cebu’s most fulgent legal minds induced sweaty palms, nervous breaths, and wrinkled eyebrows from the summoned witnesses.
Led by its athletic director, the very affable Bernard Ricablanca Jr., UC sent a delegation the size of a Sinulog parade contingent. USC didn’t buy the “strength in numbers” philosophy and the Warriors dispatched only their coach, Mike Reyes, alongside a few other supporters, notably Eddie Montalban.
The league’s chief of referees came, and so did a member of the Cesafi statistical panel. USC Gym manager Fredo Ybarita was also in attendance and my hunch is that his presence had a lot to do with his gym’s roof, which was slightly damaged when a policeman’s angry gun roared with a bullet in the air during the melee.
In short, everybody was there. And if the Dalai Lama had stopped to grace the occasion with his sentient glow, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
The presentations, especially that of UC, was fantastical, so said my source. Ricablanca brought a picture of one prominent UC cager being restrained by his fellow Webmasters, while a USC cog loomed in the background, speeding like a zebra chased by a pack of lions.
The photo, a product of magnificent lenswork by The Freeman photographer Iste Sesante, was blown to about a foot in size, apparently for shock and dramatic purposes.
UC’s team manager, a lawyer, marshaled a drawing board and pentel pen as he explained his players’ defense. The USC delegation, which came without athletic director Fr. Vic Uy, lamented the fact that its coach, Mike Reyes, got acquainted with a wayward fist allegedly thrown by a UC player.
The Cesafi summoned everyone who could shed light on last week’s anomaly, leaving no stone unturned. All told, there were countless witness testimonies, two brilliant interrogators, and enough notes to fill Madonna’s diary.
But after nearly three hours of grilling and telling, and after all the suspense that nearly killed me, the Cesafi still couldn’t find truth.
In the words of The Freeman’s report: “The referees gave no satisfactory testimonies on how the fight started and who provoked it.”
Apparently, the referees just opted to wash their hands as if they were on their way to a “kamayan” restaurant.
How disappointing, indeed.
The brawl’s two principals – Allain Abellanosa of UC and Ahman James Tagalog of USC — were supposed to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But when it was time to face the music, all they could sing was the annoying tunes of denial.
Abellanosa claims to have been provoked first. But Tagalog insists it’s the other way around. Somewhere between the tangled web of words, the truth is suffocated, waiting to exhale.
It was around 11 in the morning when I called Danny Duran yesterday, rousing him from a cute little nap. The Cesafi commissioner was at the confines of his flourishing business, the Undergoal Sportswear Haus along Bonifacio St., but he remained gracious and gave me an interview.
Danny, 50-something and fit as a bull, sounded tired, perhaps, a little dizzy. I don’t blame him. I’d feel the same way, too, if I stayed too long in a room full of lawyers.
I asked Danny point blank if it would be accurate for me to say that Cesafi’s verbal excavations last Friday failed to uncover the truth about who really started the Sept. 11 brawl.
Reluctantly, like a guy strapped to a dentist’s chair for a cavity filling, Duran said “Yes.”
But Duran also made it implicitly clear that Judge Reynoso, Baduel, and himself had gathered enough material which empowered them to make a solid recommendation before Cesafi president Jose R. “Dodong” Gullas, who will eventually hand down the penalties.
Gullas is a self-made man whose integrity is beyond reproach. As best I know, he has never asked anything from anyone in life. But as he mulls a verdict that could potentially shape the future of the Cesafi, it wouldn’t hurt for sir Dodong to have a little luck.
(homsay@hotmail.com)
(September 18, 2005 issue)
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