POC unfazed as BAP sues for contempt

The Basketball Association of the Philippines yesterday filed a motion for contempt against the Philippine Olympic Committee for its alleged defiance of a recent court decision ordering the POC to reinstate the BAP as one of its regular members.

The reinstatement, the BAP strongly believed, will lead to the lifting of the FIBA (International Basketball Association) suspension on the Philippines, and eventually the holding of basketball competitions in the 23rd SEA Games set Nov. 27 to Dec. 5.

But Philippine Olympic Committee media chief Joey Romasanta branded the BAP’s move as pre-emptive, saying the BAP is pressing much for time for the court to reinstate the expelled NSA (national sports association) before the SEA Games starts.

"They can do whatever they want," said Romasanta. "That motion was pre-emptive. Actually the mandatory injunction requires the POC to reinstate the BAP within 15 days to implement the order. However, it is not final and executory since we can still file a motion for reconsideration on the said case."

In an official statement, the POC said it is cognizant of the BAP move, maintaining that the problem has been transformed into a legal question instead of a legitimate sports issue.

"Since the IOC (International Olympic Committee) prohibits this type of intervention on the affairs of our Olympic family, the POC has tasked legal counsel Ding Tanjuatco to respond to all queries on POC’s further actions in response to the Manila Regional Trial Court order last Nov. 17," the statement said.

Romasanta further said that it was the POC General Assembly, and not just (POC president) Peping Cojuangco, who will decide on the reinstatement of the BAP. And the non-inclusion of basketball is not just a unilateral decision of Cojuangco but a collaborative decision of the Southeast Asian Games Federation Council.

"That’s the reason why we had a meeting in Bangkok. We had to bridge the member SEAG federations to decide on the matter (exclusion of basketball)," said Romasanta, referring to the SEAGFC meeting in Thailand last week where member-countries agreed to drop basketball from the calendar of events in the SEAG.

With just five days left before the start of the biennial competition, it is highly doubted if the BAP, granting that it is reinstated by the POC, could ask FIBA to act swiftly on the lifting of the suspension. There are also doubts if the five foreign countries participating in basketball — Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore — would have enough time to send their teams to the Philippines and compete.

The Philippines is the defending champion in men’s basketball, and Malaysia in women’s basketball.

To stress that basketball has been officially stripped off this year’s SEA Games calendar, it was not included in the official list and schedule of events released yesterday by the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee to foreign and local media.

The Manila Regional Trial Court last Thursday decided on the case filed by the BAP which claimed that it was illegally expelled by the POC, a move that later on led to the FIBA suspension.

In its motion for contempt, that was filed and received by the Manila Regional Trial Court yesterday, the BAP, through its legal counsel Bonifacio Alentajan, said:

"To date respondents (POC, etc) continue to defy, disobey, and disregard the lawful order of the honorable court, to the detriment of our national interest. Further, the unwarranted defiance and disobedience by the respondents of the lawful order of the honorable court, has caused and will continue to cause international embarrassment to the Republic of the Philippines." — With report from Bong Castro