THIS week highlighted one of the Pinoys’ favorite past time aside from sports—politics.
Two of the most popular sports in the country—billiards and boxing—were hit with internal squabbles and the head of the World Pool Association, the world’s governing body for billiards, had to step in.
In basketball, the battle between the Prospero Pichay group and the Manny V. Pangilinan faction of the Basketball Association of the Philippines-Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (BAP-SBP) opened another chapter.
The BAP-SBP was supposed to be a unified group of BAP and Pilipinas Basketball tasked to take over the reins from the previous BAP. But with two factions in the group, they are anything but unified.
Now, after Pichay’s group held their own elections and had BAP-SBP registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pangilinan’s group had their name changed to Samahang Baskitbol ng Pilipinas Inc. (SBPI) and asked Fiba, the world’s governing body for basketball, to drop BAP-SBP from its roster.
In the local front, the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc., which took a unique position by recognizing both factions, have been called to face the ethics committee of BAP-SBP (or the present SBPI) for supporting a tournament by Pichay’s group.
Cesafi has maintained it did nothing wrong.
Nothing much is different in billiards, whose one faction is also supported by a politician. The attention of the Billiards and Snookers Congress of the Philippines and the Billiards Players and Managers Association of the Philippines was called by the WPA head after both groups threatened to boycott each other’s tournament, the World 9-Ball Championships by the BPMAP and the World 10-Ball Championships by the BSCP.
“Talks of boycotts and running a rival tournament are contrary to the best interest of the sport and the international community,” WPA head Ian Anderson said.
In the international front, the Tour de France was again hit by a doping blow, with two-stage winner Ricardo Ricco sent packing for failing a doping test. Anti doping authorities later revealed that Ricco tried to evade a mandatory test—literally running away from the testers—last July 4, while his positive test was a result of cooperation between drug manufacturers and Wada.
On the other hand, Wada also announced that it is studying whether to include Viagra in its list of banned substances and an Australian doping expert believes that Viagra, and other legal drugs, will be abused in Beijing. (ML)
