BAP revamp, elections up

The Basketball Association of the Philippines, headed by Freddie Jalasco, is initiating a top-to-bottom revamp through national elections to start a clean slate and give the ailing association a new leadership mandate.

Mauricio "Moying" Martelino, consultant of the Asian Basketball Confederation and the BAP, yesterday announced a proposal, arrived at by BAP executive board, to conduct an election starting from the regional level to select a national board that would elect the new BAP president.

This means that the contending parties — Jalasco and his rival Quintellano "Tiny" Literal — must now first be voted upon as regional directors before they can be elected to the presidency.

The proposal was reached in a meeting yesterday morning, hours before the press conference where Jalasco and members of the executive board, including PBA commissioner Jun Bernardino and PBL chief Chino Trinidad, clarified issues they said muddled the current leadership crisis in the BAP.

Martelino said school and commercial teams which belong to leagues that conduct regular tournaments will elect the director for their respective regions.

The regional directors, one per region, will comprise the BAP national board which will elect the national president.

"The teams are the backbones on which the association stands," said Martelino, formerly a BAP secretary general.

Among the schools that qualify to vote in the elections are members of the UAAP, NCAA, NCRAA, Colleges and Universities Athletic Assocation, State Colleges and Universities Athletic Association, and regional leagues conducting their tournaments every year.

In all there will be 16 regional directors elected. However, in those cases where it is not possible to elect a regional director because of the absence of teams, the BAP will appoint an officer in charge after the elections to organize basketball operations until such time a director is elected.

Under the old setup, all regional directors were appointed by the president. Since all the regional directors are beholden to him, the BAP president can assume office for life on the basis of the assurance of his appointed directors as in the case of Lito Puyat, who was president for 28 years.

"All officers of the BAP must get a fresh mandate, starting from the grassroots," said Martelino. "If we want to cleanse the BAP, we should start with the elections for the regional directors."

The POC had also required the BAP to amend its Constitution and By-laws to erase this basic flaw of appointing regional directors.

A Commission on Election will be formed to review the eligibility of teams, establish the procedures of the elections, supervise the voting and announce the winners.

The proposal will be submitted to the POC for review and approval. The POC earlier required the BAP headed by Jalasco to submit within 15 days (until Feb. 28) the procedures, guidleines and timetable of the elections.

In the same meeting, the BAP also clarified several issues, among them:

* There is no basis for a TRO because the POC did not install, but only recognized, Jalasco as president.

*The secretary general is appointed by the President and his tenure is at the pleasure of the president.

Lawyer Brigido Dulay said the temporary restraining order filed by the Literal group with a Paranaque court may not hold because the decision of the POC earlier did not involve installing Jalasco as president but only conferring on him its recognition.

At the same time, Martelino defended the sacking of former secretary general Graham Lim – which observers viewed as the incident that triggered the whole controversy. He said Lim could be fired anytime because he was appointed by the president.

The Jalasco leadership’s proposal to conduct nationwide elections was encouraged by Bernardino and Trinidad, who also had been asked by their boards to explain why they had to side with Jalasco in the current controversy.

While Benardino and Trinidad would support anybody "recognized by the POC", they also believed a total revamp, which included Jalasco, was necessary hopefully to resolve the issue.