Sunday, July 06, 2008 Pichay vows to continue fight for neglected leagues By Marian C. Baring Sun.Star Staff Reporter
IF HE had his way, Basketball Association of the Philippines-Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (BAP-SBP) president Prospero Pichay will leave all the chaos of basketball and focus on one sport, which is chess.
Pichay claims that he has no political agenda in holding the position with the BAP-SBP, which has been clad in intrigue. He has a choice to bail out and leave the intrigues to those with political agenda. But he won’t.
The former congressman said that he is too deep into the issues that he takes things in the BAP-SBP so seriously that he would be guilt-ridden if he left.
As of the moment, the BAP-SBP, the country’s governing body for basketball, is divided into the Pichay wing and the Manny Pangilinan faction, which is the one recognized by the Philippine Olympic Committee and the Fiba, the international basketball body.
Pichay said that he is fighting in behalf of the 67 BAP leagues that are not being recognized by the Pangilinan group.
“Privately, I wish I could just leave this all behind and just focus on one sport. However, we cannot disregard the 67 BAP clubs that had existed and who were the original members and I can’t just abandon them,” Pichay, who is also the chess NSA head, said in yesterday’s press conference during the Asian University Basketball Championships (AUBC) at the Cebu Coliseum.
Happy
Pichay also said that he is happy to see that the basketball community in Cebu make the first step to unify as they worked together to stage the AUBC.
“The only thing to do now is to unify Manila. That is if we can finally put to rest the issue regarding the legitimacy of their election,” said Pichay.
Pichay said that he has exhausted all efforts to start a unification process.
“I have recommended term sharing and a fifty-fifty in the board of directors but there were not any positive response from them. I am very much willing to step down and give this position to them. But they won’t budge,” Pichay said.
In the meantime, Pichay is solidifying their basketball grassroots program and the basketball promotions in the provinces. The group is also intensifying its promotion of women’s basketball.
As of the moment, whether which group has the mandate as the NSA dangles upon the decision of the court as Pichay’s group had filed a case against Pangilinan’s group in an attempt to decide, which one really is legitimate.
The move could be detrimental to the standing of the Philippines with the Fiba, but Pichay said Fiba has not been informed about it yet.
“We have made communications to them about our claims but there was no response from them. But they should because Fiba is a signatory to all agreements that BAP and SBP entered into,” Pichay said. (MCB)
