Lopez justifies ‘calculated’ tactic

Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) president Manny Lopez said yesterday the decision to virtually surrender in the men’s finals at the recent Southeast Asian (SEA) Games was a calculated move to protect the country’s chances of winning a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics next year.

“It was a case of one step backward for two steps forward,” said Lopez. “Today, we lose but tomorrow, we win. I realize this puts a lot of pressure on us to qualify more boxers for the Olympics. We take pressure in stride as a challenge. The important thing is we sent a strong message that we will not take being slapped around sitting down, that we will uphold our honor, that we’ve got the guts to stand up to corruption and injustice.”

Dodging brickbats from critics who disagreed with the tactic, Lopez said it wasn’t easy taking a position against what he called the remnants of deposed AIBA president Anwar Chowdry’s Mafia-style regime.

“We’ve been fighting corruption in amateur boxing since 1992 when we protested Ronald Chavez’ loss in the Barcelona Olympics,” said Lopez. “After two decades of Chowdry’s corruption, we finally voted in a new president who has promised transparency and fairness for all. But it will still take some doing to clean up the mess, particularly as Thailand was Chowdry’s pet.”

AIBA president Dr. Ching Kuo Wu of Taiwan had assured Lopez of fair treatment but was unable to rein in the judges as Thais won 16 of the 17 gold medals at stake. The Philippines took a single gold with Annie Albania’s knockout win in the women’s flyweight finals and 12 silvers.

 Lopez said AIBA referees and judges commission head Terry Smith of Wales was the technical chairman in charge of overseeing and supervising the tournament in seven ladies and 10 men’s divisions. For the SEA Games, Smith chose six neutral referees in concurrence with the Thai hosts and none was top-caliber. The neutral referees came from Wales, Nepal, Jordan, Australia, Syria and Japan.

According to Lopez, Smith spent two weeks vacationing in a Thai resort in Pattaya before the SEA Games as guest of the organizers.

“We never walked out,” continued Lopez. “We made sure we wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize our chances in the Olympics. We couldn’t risk being sanctioned.”

Lopez said the seven Filipino finalists were disheartened by the blatant display of partiality in the women’s finals. 

“Our women should’ve won at least four golds,” said Lopez. “Even the former secretary-general of the Asian federation, who is Thai, called it absurd when our Filipina finalist lost a 19-0 decision. We’re not afraid to lose. Ours was a protest action supported by the POC and PSC officials who were in the gym with us – Peping Cojuangco, Steve Hontiveros, Monico Puentevella, Julian Camacho and Richie Garcia. We risked our lives because there were 5,000 screaming Thais and we were only about 25 who dared to take a stand.”

Lopez lashed out at critics for failing to appreciate the sacrifice the fighters did.

“They have no moral authority to criticize us,” said Lopez. “They were nowhere in sight when the cheating was going on. How can they accuse us of being unsportsmanlike when there was no fairness in the first place? They should’ve seen our female finalists cry. We did not dishonor our country. In fact, we upheld our pride and honor in the face of injustice. So many countries were disgusted at the situation but we were the only country with the balls to do something about it.”

Lopez refused to admit the Philippine boxing team was second class and bound to lose anyway.

“We weren’t pushovers,” he said. “We were ready to compete. We advanced to 13 of 17 finals. I don’t think that indicates we sent a second rate team. We recalled veterans like Junie Tizon and Larry Semillano to fill up the higher weights. If we didn’t send a full contingent, we would’ve been criticized. Only two of our 17 fighters didn’t come home with a medal.”

Lopez said the depth of the national pool allowed him to rest his top guns for the Olympic qualifiers in Bangkok next month. 

“We don’t want to be cheated again in the qualifiers in Thailand,” said Lopez. “So we had to do something right away. We are pursuing our dream for an Olympic gold medal. Our resolve will not waver. It’s stronger than ever.”

Lopez said he hopes to qualify four to five more fighters for the Olympics aside from Harry Tañamor who gained a ticket at the recent World Championships in Chicago. The country’s top bets for more Olympic tickets are Violito Payla, Joan Tipon, Genebert Basadre, Orlando Tacuyan and Fil-Am lightwelterweight Adam Fiel.