INQUIRER Sports

MY precious little black Liz Claiborne notebook is missing.

It’s the notebook I had scribbled notes on during the press conference held at the PBA office last Friday afternoon, following an emergency meeting of the PBA board on the Fiba situation.

It contains quotes from PBA vice chair Ricky Vargas, PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios and PBA chair Joaqui Trillo, who both assured Ricky that as a stakeholder, the pro league was a hundred percent behind the SBP.

Barrios and Trillo also announced that whatever the consequences of the SBP’s defiance of the “invitation” sent by the three-man committee formed by the Fiba recently, the Powerade team coached by Yeng Guiao will be in Tianjin, China, this August, even if only as spectator.

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That is the worst possible scenario in the event the Philippines is suspended again for the SBP’s no-show.

Ricky said the summons to a hearing was completely uncalled for. According to him, the Fiba’s three-man committee had initially said they were coming to Manila.

“Now they want us to go to Geneva. We are not going. This is our stand. We are doing the right thing. We don’t want to be stupid and fall into a trap. It’s a hang court waiting for us there where the barkada system prevails.”

Right now, Ricky said they are communicating with some people in the Fiba who are neutral.

“The Fiba is not as clean as we think it to be,” Ricky added.

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Earlier, on my way to the PBA office, I was tuned in to Sports Radio (918 khz on the AM band) which was airing the proceedings at the weekly SCOOP sa Kamayan forum. Coincidentally, the day’s guest was Prospero Pichay, president of the BAP.

Pichay was asked by one of the scribes if he thought that the Philippines would again be suspended by the Fiba.

Referring to the full page ad expressing the SBP’s stand on the Fiba investigation, Pichay replied: “By courting suspension with their (the SBP’s) irresponsible statements, they are compromising the interest of the nation para lang sa kanilang pansariling interes. Sino ngayon ang may pagmamahal sa bayan?”

“My advise to them is to attend the hearing in Geneva, para maliwanagan na ang Fiba,” the former representative from Surigao said.

“But if they don’t really want to go there, we can meet here on home grounds and talk and try to resolve our problems right here.

“Me, I’m open to a dialogue. We in the BAP are open to talks. Eh ayaw naman nilang makipag-usap sa amin.”

Rather than assail the move creating a three-man committee, Pichay said the SBP should be thankful that a solution in the long drawn out controversy plaguing Philippine basketball has taken shape.

As to apprehensions that we may be again suspended by the Fiba, Pichay said there is nothing in the invitation that indicates or said that the Philippines will be suspended.

The three-man committee’s major concern is the Bangkok Agreement which was signed by representatives of the Fiba, the BAP and the SBP in 2007, before the Unity Congress held at the Dusit Hotel in February of the same year.

The Fiba is investigating if the provisions of the agreement were followed.

If they were, then there’s no reason to fear that the country would be suspended.

“Takot silang ma-suspend. Kung hindi sila pumunta sa Geneva at magpaliwanag, baka nga tayo ma-suspend,” was Pichay’s parting shot.