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Thursday, August 31, 2006
Unified cage body to be formed by BAP, PB
MANILA — The ball is now in the hands of Joey Lina and Bernie Atienza.
This after Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) president Lina said yesterday the agreement with the Pilipinas Basketball could be fulfilled before the Sept. 30 deadline.
“The suspension can be lifted before Sept. 30,” said Lina, a day after his arrival from Tokyo, Japan, where they have reached a compromise solution with the Pilipinas Basketball to form a unified basketball federation.
Lina refused to comment on the plan to include former PBA commissioner Rudy Salud as the third man, who will be tasked to restructure a constitution and bylaws of the new federation based on countrywide and mass-based, transparency and accountability of officials.
Constitution
Salud, a lawyer, is responsible for framing the constitution of the Philippine Basketball Association and the World Boxing Council.
Lina said he would meet immediately with his counterparts in the Pilipinas Basketball, led by Bernie Atienza, as soon as they arrived from Japan.
Atienza, the PB president and management committee chairman of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), was scheduled to arrive late yesterday.
“We will meet immediately as soon as they arrive from Japan to start the implementation of the agreement,” added Lina, a former senator and cabinet secretary.
Validation
Other issues that they have to immediately tackle is the review and validation of the loss of member leagues by both the BAP and BP, which is to be submitted later on to the three-man committee created by the Fiba Central Board to monitor the implementation of the agreement.
The Central Board of the Federation International des Basketball (FIBA) rejected last Monday the appeal to lift the suspension on the Philippines until the agreement forged by the BAP and PB is fulfilled.
Appointed
The Fiba Central Board appointed newly-elected president Bob Elphinston of Australia, secretary-general Patrick Baumann of Switzerland and Fiba-Asia secretary general Dato Yeoh Choo Hock to monitor the implementation of the agreement with the power to decide on behalf of the Board.
Another feature of the agreement is for the unified organization to hold a national congress that will oversee the election of officers.
Meanwhile, despite the pronouncement of the PBA of not sending an all-professional basketball team in the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, the POC will still submit an entry to the organizing committee.
Mauricio Martelino, head of the Team Philippines secretariat, yesterday said they will still send an entry in basketball to the Doha, Qatar Asian Games Organizing Committee (Dagco) in anticipation for the lifting of the Fiba suspension next month.
Deadline
The Dagoc has set the deadline for the submission of entry by numbers of all delegations on Sept. 15.
Martelino said the Dagoc might consider the submission of entry by the Philippines even without names yet because they are familiar with the situation in basketball here.
“I thnk they will understand because the Dagoc is familiar with our problems in basketball. I think they will consider submission of entry even without names yet,” said Martelino, a former secretary-general of the Asian Basketball Confederation (now Fiba-Asia).
Earlier reports have it that PBA chairman Ricky Vargas of Talk ‘N Text is not keen on sending an all-professional team to the Asiad because it can disrupt the schedule of the 2006-2007 season of the league. (FCC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 31, 2006 issue)
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