Billiards storm brewing

GOT a text message from local boxing promoter Jun Sarreal the other day expressing his full support for Manny Pacquiao and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.

Jun is the son of  Lope “Papa” Sarreal Sr., and the younger brother of  Laura Sarreal Elorde, widow of boxing great Gabriel “Flash” Elorde.

According to Sarreal, Manny was “a hundred percent right in defending Arum, a respected promoter-lawyer.”

Sarreal said he has known Arum for four decades.

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Although he believes Manny won this fight against Timothy Bradley, Sarreal feels Manny lost a little steam sometime after the 6th round.

“I feel sorry for Manny because he has been in boxing for 20 years already and it’s natural na paubos na ang gas tank niya,” Sarreal said, making reference to the fact that the pound-for-pound king was unable to knock Bradley out despite coming close to it at some point.

“People had expected Manny to win via a knockout but that didn’t happen, that’s why they were very disappointed.”

“The same thing happened to Flash Elorde in his last two years in boxing. People may not understand it but these two boxing icons are just humans like us,” said Sarreal.

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Billiards players and stakeholders were surprised when Arturo “Bong” Ilagan, interim president of BSCP, submitted a new list of players to the PSC who are to be given allowances .

Ilaga is said to have made the move without consulting anybody except his partners, “who are unknowns in the billiards community.”

Dennis Orcollo together with other players condemned this ungrateful act, according to Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) president Perry Mariano, who is also the manager of Orcollo.

“The players have put in so much to this sport and no one or two unknown people in the billiards community should decide on their own fate of the sport,” Perry said.

“These guys never spent a single centavo or a minute of their time in training and converting the raw talents of these world champions into what they are now.”

“Year in and year out our players continue to give our country glory and honor and for them not to have a say in their own organization requires an immediate investigation.”

According to Perry, the cue artists have already submitted their letter of protest to BSCP chair Aristeo Puyat, who promised to immediately conduct an investigation.

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“This all started when Ilagan asked players for a share in their incentives. They were shocked that an NSA president would openly ask for something like this. There were also reports of  questionable transactions and decisions pertaining to players and funds.

“The players are requesting that medalists and world ranking Filipino players be members of the association for them to have a say on their sport. They also are working for the hiring of real coaches and trainers that could really develop the sport.”