Jinggoy on hand when BAP office re-opens

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, the newly-installed president of the Basketball Association of the Philippines, will personally see to it that the BAP office at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex is opened on Monday.

Estrada, who took over the post vacated by Joey Lina early this week, will be at the historic sports complex at 2 p.m. to witness the re-opening of the BAP office which padlocked last June.

The Philippine Sports Commission padlocked the BAP office, located at the second floor of its administration building, due to the basketball impasse that has created so much embarrassment for the country.

Estrada spoke with PSC chairman Butch Ramirez a few days ago and was reportedly assured by the latter that the BAP office will be opened. But the granting of financial assistance to the group is another issue.

The PSC grants financial assistance to national sports associations (NSAs) recognized by the Philippine Olympic Committee and their respective international federations (IFs).

The use of offices at the RMSC is also one of the privileges accorded to duly-recognized NSAs.

This early, however, questions are being raised why the PSC will re-open the BAP when it is no longer being recognized by the POC. In fact, the BAP has been expelled from the POC last year.

"But the PSC chairman has already promised to Senator Estrada that the BAP office will be re-opened," said the controversial BAP secretary-general Graham Lim.

Ramirez cannot be contacted for comment, although his special assistant Joseph Encabo said he hasn’t heard "any word" from the chairman regarding the re-opening of the BAP office.

Since its office was padlocked more than a year ago, the BAP has maintained a small unit at the Cityland Condominium right in front of the PSC building for at least P12,000 a month.

As a result of a bitter dispute among the country’s basketball leaders, the Philippines was placed under suspension by the International Basketball Federation or FIBA.

Efforts to unify the sport in the country and have the suspension lifted have been put into place a couple of times, leading to the formation of a new association, the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas.