A bad call corrected

HE CALLED last week to explain he had been the victim of a “bad call.”

Philip Juico, former chair of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and current president of the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club, was, however, back on the phone that same day.

He begged to take back clarifying statements he had sent, careful not to put others in a bad light.

He said he had too much on his plate already.

He left everything at that.

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After re-reading Juico’s side, this reporter has taken it upon himself to print here the salient points. Kindly share them:

“I have too many other things to do here and overseas on a professional, personal and volunteer basis and too busy to invite unnecessary and unproductive comments. These are all productive work designed to help others and build institutions and a more dynamic Philippine sports and society, contrasted with intrigue-creation and nit-picking made even worse by lack of facts.

“As I mentioned to you, Tats Suzara of the Pilipinas Super Liga approached me around Aug.-Sept. 2012 asking me to help him put together a league that would provide competition for women volleyballers who have graduated from college. The league would fill a void after the UAAP or NCAA, etc. It was designed to uplift women’s volleyball and help bring badly needed credibility to the sport especially in the eyes of the international volleyball community which was disappointed with the country’s failure to field decent teams in international competitions.

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“Tats had talked to Channel 5, ABS CBN and even GMA 7, all to no avail. At some point, one of these networks seemed to be on the verge of signing a contract with Tats only to back out at the last minute, presumably because of financial constraints. I finally suggested to Tats that we should try Solar Sports, although I told him that that’s cable and not free TV. I had been asked to informally assist Solar in further strengthening its sports programming and I thought that this was the perfect win-win situation: get our lady spikers employed after college, provide continuing talent for elite competitions, provide exposure to companies which are sports-oriented and help Solar in the area of sports. Everyone would be a winner.

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“My role was to get the TV time and the teams into the league. The truth of the matter is that, with a few days left before the start of the tournament, one team still did not have a sponsor and I was able to tap a sports-minded friend at the last hour to invest in the team. One can just imagine what would’ve happened to these athletes and their finances if there was no sponsor who took up the slack.

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“I have not earned and do not expect to earn anything from this work, most often abonado ka pa nga (you spend your own money). It’s “fascinating” how people can criticize without checking their facts. Salamat (Thank you). Sana (I wish) we were able to sit down and have lunch or coffee (at least).”

PHILIP (POPOY) JUICO

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(NEVER AGAIN: There’s this fuming text message sent yesterday by a balikbayan: “That boxing card at Solaire on Saturday was a shame. I happened to be there and it was hard to tolerate. Sobra-sobra (too many) mismatches. Don’t they have any shame? For the good of boxing, let’s come out with the truth. If it were in Las Vegas, they would’ve been booed, babatuhin sila (they’ll get stoned). Thank you, Menard Sanches.