INQUIRER Sports

Mr. Patrick Baumann

Secretary General

International Basketball

Federation (Fiba)

Dear Sir,

Please accept my sincerest greetings from the Republic of the Philippines, where basketball is played and followed with religious intensity.

Please consider this as a letter from a fan of the Fiba.

You may not be aware of this, sir, but you have become a sort of hero to many Filipino sports devotees after you came to Manila to help resolve the raging basketball leadership issue hereabouts.

Let me assure that your effort in helping establish the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas has led to significant reforms that have helped Philippine basketball recover from years of neglect.

Philippine basketball is now in the midst of what could be called a robust development.

I trust you have been sufficiently assessed of these great developments, even before the SBP came out with full-page newspaper advertisements last week.

* * *

Let me assure you, sir, that those advertisements were put out to set records straight, and never to defy the Fiba or put anybody or any institution in a bad light.

It saddens me that there’s currently widespread fears here in my country over a possible Fiba ban or suspension following the SBP’s refusal to submit itself to the jurisdiction of a special commission that will meet in Geneva on July 20 to 22.

SBP president Manny Pangilinan had earlier asked that they, at least, be informed of “the rules of court and how they would judge us.”

As things stood, the SBP would’ve agreed to be scolded or punished for an unknown fault or violation if it attended the commission meeting.

Mr. Pangilinan said they were not coming “unless the Fiba clears to us the real mandate, jurisdiction and scope of authority.”

Knowing Mr. Pangilinan, he would not take that immovable stand if he had at least been told what they had to answer for.

* * *

Of course, it can’t be denied that there had been some imperfections with the SBP, like the untimely exit of Nic Jorge, one of its founders.

But let me assure you that this slip was more of an exception than a rule in the SBP.

What’s truly alarming is this report that Go Teng Kok, special assistant to the president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, was able to touch base with the Fiba before a summons was issued to SBP to subject itself to the special commission.

As you obviously did not have the time and chance to do a character check on Go, he has just committed the dastardly act of disqualifying a legally elected president of the Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines.

For the record, the all-powerful Go himself supervised that election that was ordered by the POC.

However, he next victimized a promising sportsman by forcing him to accept the illegitimate cycling presidency in order to cover up for his violation.

* * *

This is the same Go Teng Kok who, in 1990, got fiercely shouted out of the Office of the Commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association after he suggested to the man in authority to manipulate the result of the second game of the Liaoning (China) basketball team tour.

Liaoning had lost the first match by an enormous margin and Go wanted either a reversal or a tight result in Game 2 “so they could rake it in Game 3.”

You’re free to challenge this in front of the PBA man in authority, who said he had one veteran broadcaster as witness to the incident.

Sorry, sir, for eating much of your time.

However, I found it my duty to inform you that you would be giving Philippine basketball back to the grip of gangsters masquerading as sports leaders if you fall to their latest ploy.

Respectfully,

Recah Trinidad

pr_sports@inquirer.com.ph