World featherweight boxing champion Manny Pacquiao’s registered manager Marty Elorde texted this message: "Read your article about the GAB chairman. It’s good. More power."
Boxing manager Joy Ouano texted: "I like ur article. Now truth prevails."
International boxing matchmaker Jun Sarreal texted: "Congrats on ur column." He later phoned to say it’s about time the truth came out on the shenanigans that go on behind GAB chairman Eduardo Villanueva’s back.
Sportswriter and boxing judge Salven Lagumbay of Cebu texted: "Great story on GAB. KO sila. Im wid u. Count me in. ALA (Antonio L. Aldeguer)and Cebu boxing are behind u al d way."
Boxing manager Tony Aldeguer wrote in an e-mail: "What a masterpiece of an article you wrote in your column ‘A Sporting Chance’ about GAB chairman Eduardo Villanueva. Everything is true and I just hope that this will open the eyes of the chairman."
There was no reaction from the GAB.
Since the column was published, I’ve been deluged by calls from boxing insiders who are eager to share their horror stories about the GAB.
"Did you know that some GAB officials charge as much as P150,000 to license a trainer or a cornerman without boxing experience?" said a caller. "The license is the excuse to get a visa primarily for Japan and Korea. It is also the excuse to accompany a fighter abroad. Then the trainer or cornerman would disappear and go TNT. That was a big racket until the Japan Boxing Commission banned Filipino fighters because of the high incidence of TNTs even among the fighters themselves. Korea has also become selective in importing Filipino fighters."
Another caller said GAB officials are cornering dollar-paying assignments as boxing judges in overseas fights.
"It’s a clear case of conflict of interest," said the caller. "It’s discouraging private citizens from aspiring to become judges because they’re not getting the chance to gain experience abroad. GAB officials are apportioning the assignments among themselves. Sila-sila ang nakikinabang at the expense of judges who are not GAB employees."
An exasperated caller said some international promoters go through the GAB, the government agency supervising professional sports in the country, as a matter of courtesy and procedure to request for a particular judge to be assigned in an overseas fight.
"But sometimes, the GAB officials would say the judge being requested is not available and recommend one of their boys," said the caller. "Once, I attended an international convention and a foreign promoter asked me if I had recovered from my leg injury. I told him I never had a leg injury. It turned out that the promoter asked the GAB if I could be assigned to judge a fight abroad and the GAB replied I wouldn’t be available because of a leg injury. The GAB recommended somebody else for the job."
It’s an open secret that judges and referees, who are assigned dollar-paying jobs abroad, share part of their fees with GAB officials. Some refer to it as a "balato." Others say it’s nothing more than a "tong."
A caller said he knows of a fighter who was suspended by the GAB after testing positive for hepatitis. The fighter, however, appealed his case and brought a sack of potatoes from Baguio to distribute to GAB officials as a gift. Lo and behold, the fighter was stricken off the suspended list. What a sack of potatoes can do.
Another caller said some GAB officials aren’t only involved in matchmaking—-for a fee, of course—-but also in promoting. Worse, some unscrupulous GAB officials are involved in promoting "ghost" cards to pad the records of fighters who need to show wins to earn an invitation to see action abroad.
Then, there’s the practice of charging three percent of ticket sales and even TV revenues from boxing promoters as a supervision fee for the GAB. It’s a fact that boxing promoters hardly make money on their shows, if at all. The GAB also requires expensive medical tests that fighters must undergo. Instead of supporting boxing, the GAB appears to be killing it. Worse, some GAB officials openly bargain to compromise on a figure for the revenues of a promotion in exchange for an under-the-table kickback so there is less to pay for the three percent fee.
A caller claimed Villanueva is not ignorant of the shenanigans. "He knows what’s going on but he doesn’t want to rock the boat because he’s also guilty of his own shenanigans like opening and furnishing a GAB office in Bacolod, where he lives, so he can justify going home from Manila," continued the caller. "And of course, Villanueva is the main beneficiary of the GAB junkets where he travels all over the world to attend boxing conventions without knowing what he’s supposed to do. To prove the GAB doesn’t know what it’s doing, it sends officials to WBC, WBA and WBO but not to IBF conventions. Yet, the IBF has been the most supportive of Filipino fighters. Look what it’s done for Pacquiao without the GAB’s support."
I got an earful from the callers. I only hope that by sharing what they told me, the GAB is shaken up to stop its shenanigans and do something good for boxing—-for a change.