Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Poc ‘not meddling’ with sbp affairs By Frank C. Calapre Sun.Star Correspondent
MANILA - The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) yesterday denied having interfered in the affairs of the newly formed Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP) that led to the resignation of former senator Joey Lina as president of the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).
POC deputy secretary-general Mark Joseph and Col. Buddy Andrada, vice-chairman of the committee on membership, said they have not even received any formal communication from the SBP since its formation last month.
“For the record, the POC has never receive any communication from SBP, much less has something to do with the supposed outcome of an election,” said Joseph and Andrada in a joint statement released to the media.
A day after Lina resigned, BAP secretary-general Graham Lim followed suit.
Lim tendered his resignation from the Board of Trustees of the SBP yesterday, saying that the SBP “can move forward better” without him.
Unexpected
In an unexpected move, Lina tendered his resignation last Sunday as head of the BAP and as a member of the three-man panel, which formed and wrote the constitution-and-by-laws of the SBP.
The other members were Pilipinas Basketball president Bernie Atienza and communications mogul Manny V. Pangilinan, who heads the panel.
Lina, a former secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, said in his resignation letter that he has been unacceptable before the POC and quitting the post he occupied with the BAP for nearly two years would be the only better way to have the SBP gain recognition by the POC.
But Andrada countered that as vice-chairman of the POC membership committee, they have always been fair to all who seek for recognition.
“In all my 20 years as a member of the POC, we have never singled out any person. Maybe former Senator Lina thinks he is that important to the POC that he should be singled out—but the truth is he is not. Our membership rules are applied equally to all applicants,” Andrada said.
Lim’s love
Lim, for his part, said his “genuine love” for basketball prompted him to arrive at the decision.
“But much as I would like to be part of this basketball renaissance, I feel that the SBP can move forward better without me, leading to the acceptance of the unified basketball organization by the POC,” a BAP press statement quoted Lim as saying.
Lim said he will ask the BAP National Congress, which convenes today at the Aloha Hotel, to persuade Lina to reconsider his decision to leave the 70-year-old BAP.
