|
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Oyson: POC, BAP lawyers speak in diverse tongues
By Manuel N. Oyson, Jr.
Counter Punch
The Philippine Olympic Committee has given up any hope of including basketball in the Southeast Asian Games this month. Not even as an invitational tournament.
Through its lawyer, Igmidio Tanjuatco, it has officially informed Branch 54 of the Manila Regional Trial Court that basketball is out. This is the same information that POC president Peping Cojuangco was to relay to members of the Seag Federation Council yesterday in Bangkok.
Under Seag rules – technical officials, referees, judges, timekeepers, inspectors, et al. and a Jury of Appeals for each sports shall be appointed by the appropriate national federation of the host country which shall direct the work in conjunction with the organizing committee. The Basketball Association of the Philippines is the appropriate national basketball federation in the Philippines. But it was expelled last June by the POC.
HOPEFUL. The BAP is not about to say “amen” to the latest admonition of the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) that basketball will no longer be staged in the Seag this month. The Fiba has already ruled that basketball is already out of it and those who insist to stage the event, even as an exhibition tournament despite the ban, face sterner sanctions from it, including exclusion from all Fiba-sponsored cage tournaments anywhere.
Remember, we have only two weeks before the official opening on Nov. 27. In fact, the Cebu leg will start on Nov. 25. But this does not faze Philippine cage officials. Basketball will still be a part of the SEA Games because the game is the passion of the nation. What is the Seag if basketball is not on the calendar and of which the Filipinos are the defending champions in the event.
MANDAMUS. That is why last week, the BAP filed a petition for mandamus with preliminary mandatory injunction against the Philippine Olympic Committee to lift the suspension which it called “illegal” and reinstate the BAP so that basketball be allowed in the biennial games.
Bonifacio Alentajan, the BAP’s lawyer, explained that there is no legal ground why his client should be expelled from the POC.
I said in my earlier column on the subject (SSC – 11/3/05) that “with time running out I do not know how the Manila RTC can decide the complaint either way.” I added the cautionary statement: “Unless there is a prayer for preliminary mandatory injunction to reinstate the BAP with the POC in the meantime and it is granted.”
DIVERSE. It would seem that the POC and BAP lawyers are speaking in diverse tongues. POC’s Tanjuatco admits that Cojuangco was to inform the Seag Council yesterday of the cancellation of basketball. But here is BAP’s Alentajan claiming that there is still hope of salvaging basketball in the Seag.
But as I said, a tpetition for mandamus with a prayer for a preliminary mandatory injunction filed by the BAP would provide only a temporary relief, if granted. But the purpose shall have been achieved until the case is heard on the merits. By then the 23rd SEA Games would have long been over. Hope still springs eternal within the bosom of the BAP and its lawyer.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The law and the facts are behind the BAP. They are very clear. There is no room for misinterpretation.” – BAP lawyer Bonifacio Alentajan
(mno@sunstar.com.ph)
(November 12, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
