Eala mulls legal action against BAP

SBP executive director and Liga Pilipinas CEO Noli Eala said yesterday a group identified with BAP secretary-general Graham Lim is creating confusion in the basketball community by making false representations and could be liable in court for usurpation of authority.

While Eala dismissed Lim’s group as legally untenable, he said the confusion is causing skepticism and doubt on the SBP’s status as FIBA’s only recognized country affiliate.

“What the other group is doing is actionable, legally speaking,” said Eala. “It’s the old BAP group using BAP-SBP to claim it is representative of the majority of the stakeholders in basketball. Unfortunately, we’re losing the war of confusion, perception-wise, but in legal terms, there’s no doubt the SBP is the duly recognized NSA (National Sports Association) by FIBA and the POC.”

Eala said he is seriously considering going to court against the BAP for usurpation of authority.

“The BAP is claiming it has the rightful officers to represent the stakeholders,” said Eala. “That’s not the case. Now, they’re organizing a so-called Asian University Basketball Federation tournament in Cebu and calling on schools to participate. The tournament is not sanctioned by SBP and neither is it sanctioned by the Asian University Sports Federation. This kind of activity only promotes dissension and confusion.”

Eala also said the SBP is moving forward in laying the groundwork for a unified system of educating, accrediting, leveling and assigning referees to work in sanctioned tournaments. In this regard, FIBA sports director Lubomir Kotleba of the Slovak Republic and FIBA-Asia technical director Col. Lee Kak Kuan of South Korea are arriving in Manila to conduct an intensive referees’ seminar sponsored by the SBP on Sept. 16-18.

Eala said it is the SBP’s ultimate goal to develop a national basketball philosophy of officiating, coaching and playing under FIBA rules from the grassroots to the elite level. A proposed SBP regulatory and standards commission, to be headed by Moying Martelino, will take the lead role in performing the task.

“The commission will be assigned to synchronize the country’s basketball calendar to consider international commitments, standardize the benefits and fees of referees and establish a foundation for the future so there will be a uniform interpretation of rules,” added Eala.

Eala said FIBA rules will be adopted as a general policy with emphasis on decorum and how the game is played.

“We’d like to see standardized rules across the board, whenever possible, even as we understand marketing and commercial considerations,” said Eala.  “For instance, we’ll carefully study the new UAAP rule where in the last two minutes, the possession arrow is suspended. We’ll look into restricting the number of team officials on the bench to follow FIBA regulations. We’ll also look into enforcing disciplinary standards. Remember, when we played Iran in the last FIBA-Asia Championships, we got a technical in the last minute for reacting to a play by standing up from the bench. That led to two free throws and possession for Iran and it cost us the game.”

The defeat knocked the Philippines out of contention for an Olympic slot, which eventually went to Iran as the Asian champion.

Eala said the SBP will seek observer status to monitor the performance of referees in the UAAP and NCAA without interfering in the conduct of play.  The monitoring will have a bearing on the national leveling of referees early next year.

“Once we’ve finalized the leveling process, we’ll be confident in assigning referees for whatever tournament that is sanctioned by the SBP, anywhere in the country,” he continued. “Of course, we will expect leagues affiliated with the SBP to tap our referees.”

Eala said under the proposed regulatory and standards commission will be four committees - youth to be headed by Nic Jorge, coaches, technical to be headed by Perry Martinez and competitions to be headed by Bernie Atienza. Eala said he is hoping to invite Chito Narvasa to head the coaches committee.  Aside from the committee heads, Eala said he will enlist two more coaches (including Chot Reyes), two international referees (including the PBL’s Levy Valenzuela) and two basketball academicians (including Joe Lipa) to complete the membership of the commission.