Literal gains POC nod as BAP head

Quintillano "Tiny" Literal emerged the victor from a nine-month battle for recognition after the Philippine Olympic Committee conferred on him yesterday its conditional recognition as official president of the Basketball Association of the Philippines.

It took only a simple parliamentary procedure of the POC General Assembly – a mere motion that was approved after no objection was registered on the floor – to give Literal its recognition and end months of debate and infighting on the leadership issue within the country’s biggest national sports association.

In effect, the POC also withdrew its earlier recognition on Gonzalo "Lito" Puyat, the other party in the BAP leadership dispute.

Although the recognition is conditional – it will be final only if Literal withdrew all the cases he and his group filed in the local courts – the issue is now moot and academic since Literal himself wrote the POC the other day that he was withdrawing all the cases he had filed with the Parañaque and Manila courts against POC officials.

The 360-degree turn apparently was initiated by supporters of POC president Celso Dayrit, who was the target of an ouster move yesterday through a vote of no confidence.

"By giving in to us and junking their man, Lito Puyat, we have scored a victory," said athletics head Go Teng Kok, who spearheaded the ouster move following Dayrit’s failure to settle the leadership issue that has dragged for nine months.

"Literal’s victory is my victory too since it made it look like that the POC has no more confidence in (POC president Celso) Dayrit," he added.

The planned vote of no-confidence never took place according to Dayrit but Go said he is still getting the required 2/3 signatories from the assembly for it to be allowed.

"I’m just testing the waters. I have the numbers but we called it off in the last minute," added Go, who claimed he has 20 of the 30 regular NSA members present in the assembly. POC secretary-general Romeo Ribaño of squash said the POC was just following the International Olympic Committee charter regarding NSA recognition, hinting that the move to recognize Literal was not intended to appease the Go group and prevent the ouster move from taking place.;

"We are just following the Olympic Charter which states that National Olympic Committees should recognize NSAs recognized by their international federations," Ribaño said.

Literal got the International Basketball Federation’s (FIBA) nod after he was elected as president of the BAP last Sept. 2.

Literal said he expects his counsels to be able to withdraw all court cases in a week’s time.

Nic Jorge, secretary-general of the other group, said the POC did not follow proper procedures in handing Literal a conditional recognition.

"What happened was that they did agree to recognize Literal without withdrawing recognition from us first," he said.

Jorge threatened to file an injunction stopping the Literal group from using the name BAP after citing a won case in the Securities and Exchange Commission.;

But the most dramatic moment came when Jalasco, now without an NSA, rose to the podium after the meeting was adjourned and asked Go to brief the POC on his alleged involvement with Yu Yuk Lai, who was sentenced to life imprisonment the other day for drug trafficking.

Jalasco’s actions irritated Go, who said that the matter should be discussed in a different forum outside of the POC. Jalasco alleged Go waved him a dirty finger which almost led the two to a fistcuff before cooler heads prevailed. – Joey Villar