STATEMENT ON THE PHILPPINE BILLIARDS SITUATION
by June Diokno
Spokesman and Program Director
Billiards & Snooker Congress of the Philippines
21 July 2004
The Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) wishes to place on record this statement and report on the billiards situation in the Philippines for the guidance and information of national clubs and international billiards organizations, the media and the public.
The BSCP was established in 1987 following the EDSA revolution of 1986. It is the member for the Philippines of the Asian Pocket Billiards Union (APBU), and as such is part of the international pool governance system under the World Pocket-Billiards Association (WPA). It is the member for billiards of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), through which it is part of the Olympic system. It is also the Philippine member of the Asian Confederation for Billiard Sports (ACBS), the Asian representative in the World Confederation of Billiard Sports (WCBS).
There are 4.5 million Filipinos who play billiards regularly according to an official survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations in 2006. As the national sports association, the BSCP comprises and represents the many stakeholders of billiard sports in the Philippines, including players, promoters, billiards firms, parlors, clubs, associations, player managers, referees, billiards aficionados, media representatives, and billiard fans all over the country.
The current billiards situation in the country has arisen mainly because of the brazen attempt of a breakaway group ? the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) -- to take over billiards in the Philippines on the absurd notion that they could do so with a handful of known players in hand. That challenge has been rebuffed in the POC, in the APBU, and in the Philippine billiards community as a whole. Nevertheless, the group has continued to try and disrupt the work of the BSCP through misinformation, wild and unfounded allegations, and events designed to compete with the BSCP calendar. And they have foisted their campaign of misinformation not just inside the country, but on the international front.
To distinguish between fact and falsehood in the present billiards situation, we are therefore issuing this official statement of facts and issues for the information and guidance of members and colleagues in the national and international billiards communities.
1. The Billiards Managers Association of the Philippines (BMAP) has claimed that the BSCP and its leadership have misappropriated public funds for its activities, starting with the allegation in January this year that the BSCP had received and misused P10 million given by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). This is an outright falsehood. After a thorough accounting of funds allocated for billiards by the PSC, its chairman William Ramirez issued an official statement that the government body never gave the BSCP the alleged P10 million fund or any other funds. All monies given for billiards (amounting to P1.2 million) went directly to players and referees. Not a single cent went to our association. (See attached Inquirer report.) Despite this clear rejection of its allegation, the BMPAP continues to retail this charge to the unsuspecting.
2. The BMPAP has claimed that government sponsorship and support of the 2006 and 2007 World Pool Championships in Manila represents a form of malversation of public funds by Raya Sports as promoter and BSCP as partner organization. This is false and ignorant. The support obtained for the WPCs was fully above board and was integral to the program from the beginning. No less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed her support for the events. Government corporations are some of the biggest advertisers and supporters of sports events. The Department of Tourism has a $50 million budget specifically for the promotion of Philippine tourism abroad. For every peso given in support of the WPCs, Government got way, way more in terms of media values and national goodwill. Indeed, the Philippines became the virtual pool capital of the world by virtue of these efforts.
3. The BMPAP has claimed that in the selection of Filipino players for international competition, the BSCP does not play fair with all players and does not conduct a proper selection process. This is false and a total misrepresentation of the facts. In choosing players for international competition, the BSCP follows a strict process of evaluation and qualification. Besides regularly conducting tournaments, it institutes special qualifying tournaments to select the most suitable representatives for foreign competition.
What happened this year was that a number of players ? under contract with the BMPAP managers ? severed their relationship with the BSCP with its manifesto of February 2008, and thereby took themselves out of the selection process. The BMPAP boasted that henceforth it would conduct its own selection of players for the WPA events and the Guinness 9Ball Tour. It wrote the WPA, APBU and ESPN to inform them that it was now in charge of billiards in the Philippines. And it even got a government agency, the Games and Amusement Board (GAB), to write international bodies, claiming powers over Philippine sports that it does not have. When these overtures for international recognition were rebuffed, they turned around and started claiming that their players were not being fairly included and treated in the BSCP selection process.
The BSCP?s position on this issue is clear. To be included in the selection process, the BMPAP players have to be reintegrated into the BSCP system. As a minimum requirement for this, players who publicly denounced the BSCP leadership for alleged corruption and abuses should individually either retract their charges or file their complaints before the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC). They cannot have it both ways: enjoying the patronage of the BSCP while denouncing it with all kinds of allegations.
The BSCP has no quarrel with the players of the BMPAP. We believe the players are just being used by their managers for their dark purposes. This is why we have refrained so far from applying full sanctions against them. But until they profess full allegiance to the BSCP and respect for its rules and policies, they will not be included in the selection process for international competition.
4. We want to state for the record that the BSCP and its partner organizations have been instrumental in helping many Filipino players achieve international recognition by providing them with the opportunity to play in major tournaments at home and abroad. Among them are players who are in the fold of the BMPAP. Until the BSCP started its proactive program in 2005, the only Filipino players known to the world were Efren Reyes, Francisco Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan. No other Filipino players were known because of Puyat?s policy of exclusion and control over international invitations.
Once the BSCP launched its program of promoting international tournaments in the Philippines and helping Filipino players to compete abroad, there was literally an explosion of Filipino players getting recognition internationally. Dennis Orcullo got his first international triumph at the World Pool League in Poland via an invitation gotten for him by BSCP. Antonio Gabica won his Asian Gold Medal for pool because BSCP fielded him in competition. Ronato Alcano got his big break via the 2006 world Pool Championship in Manila. Marlon Manalo got his start through the BSCP system of nurturing talent. Lee Van Corteza got recognition through the many opportunities given him by the BSCP. The list goes on.
- end of part 1 -
by June Diokno
Spokesman and Program Director
Billiards & Snooker Congress of the Philippines
21 July 2004
The Billiards and Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) wishes to place on record this statement and report on the billiards situation in the Philippines for the guidance and information of national clubs and international billiards organizations, the media and the public.
The BSCP was established in 1987 following the EDSA revolution of 1986. It is the member for the Philippines of the Asian Pocket Billiards Union (APBU), and as such is part of the international pool governance system under the World Pocket-Billiards Association (WPA). It is the member for billiards of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), through which it is part of the Olympic system. It is also the Philippine member of the Asian Confederation for Billiard Sports (ACBS), the Asian representative in the World Confederation of Billiard Sports (WCBS).
There are 4.5 million Filipinos who play billiards regularly according to an official survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations in 2006. As the national sports association, the BSCP comprises and represents the many stakeholders of billiard sports in the Philippines, including players, promoters, billiards firms, parlors, clubs, associations, player managers, referees, billiards aficionados, media representatives, and billiard fans all over the country.
The current billiards situation in the country has arisen mainly because of the brazen attempt of a breakaway group ? the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP) -- to take over billiards in the Philippines on the absurd notion that they could do so with a handful of known players in hand. That challenge has been rebuffed in the POC, in the APBU, and in the Philippine billiards community as a whole. Nevertheless, the group has continued to try and disrupt the work of the BSCP through misinformation, wild and unfounded allegations, and events designed to compete with the BSCP calendar. And they have foisted their campaign of misinformation not just inside the country, but on the international front.
To distinguish between fact and falsehood in the present billiards situation, we are therefore issuing this official statement of facts and issues for the information and guidance of members and colleagues in the national and international billiards communities.
1. The Billiards Managers Association of the Philippines (BMAP) has claimed that the BSCP and its leadership have misappropriated public funds for its activities, starting with the allegation in January this year that the BSCP had received and misused P10 million given by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). This is an outright falsehood. After a thorough accounting of funds allocated for billiards by the PSC, its chairman William Ramirez issued an official statement that the government body never gave the BSCP the alleged P10 million fund or any other funds. All monies given for billiards (amounting to P1.2 million) went directly to players and referees. Not a single cent went to our association. (See attached Inquirer report.) Despite this clear rejection of its allegation, the BMPAP continues to retail this charge to the unsuspecting.
2. The BMPAP has claimed that government sponsorship and support of the 2006 and 2007 World Pool Championships in Manila represents a form of malversation of public funds by Raya Sports as promoter and BSCP as partner organization. This is false and ignorant. The support obtained for the WPCs was fully above board and was integral to the program from the beginning. No less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo expressed her support for the events. Government corporations are some of the biggest advertisers and supporters of sports events. The Department of Tourism has a $50 million budget specifically for the promotion of Philippine tourism abroad. For every peso given in support of the WPCs, Government got way, way more in terms of media values and national goodwill. Indeed, the Philippines became the virtual pool capital of the world by virtue of these efforts.
3. The BMPAP has claimed that in the selection of Filipino players for international competition, the BSCP does not play fair with all players and does not conduct a proper selection process. This is false and a total misrepresentation of the facts. In choosing players for international competition, the BSCP follows a strict process of evaluation and qualification. Besides regularly conducting tournaments, it institutes special qualifying tournaments to select the most suitable representatives for foreign competition.
What happened this year was that a number of players ? under contract with the BMPAP managers ? severed their relationship with the BSCP with its manifesto of February 2008, and thereby took themselves out of the selection process. The BMPAP boasted that henceforth it would conduct its own selection of players for the WPA events and the Guinness 9Ball Tour. It wrote the WPA, APBU and ESPN to inform them that it was now in charge of billiards in the Philippines. And it even got a government agency, the Games and Amusement Board (GAB), to write international bodies, claiming powers over Philippine sports that it does not have. When these overtures for international recognition were rebuffed, they turned around and started claiming that their players were not being fairly included and treated in the BSCP selection process.
The BSCP?s position on this issue is clear. To be included in the selection process, the BMPAP players have to be reintegrated into the BSCP system. As a minimum requirement for this, players who publicly denounced the BSCP leadership for alleged corruption and abuses should individually either retract their charges or file their complaints before the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC). They cannot have it both ways: enjoying the patronage of the BSCP while denouncing it with all kinds of allegations.
The BSCP has no quarrel with the players of the BMPAP. We believe the players are just being used by their managers for their dark purposes. This is why we have refrained so far from applying full sanctions against them. But until they profess full allegiance to the BSCP and respect for its rules and policies, they will not be included in the selection process for international competition.
4. We want to state for the record that the BSCP and its partner organizations have been instrumental in helping many Filipino players achieve international recognition by providing them with the opportunity to play in major tournaments at home and abroad. Among them are players who are in the fold of the BMPAP. Until the BSCP started its proactive program in 2005, the only Filipino players known to the world were Efren Reyes, Francisco Bustamante and Alex Pagulayan. No other Filipino players were known because of Puyat?s policy of exclusion and control over international invitations.
Once the BSCP launched its program of promoting international tournaments in the Philippines and helping Filipino players to compete abroad, there was literally an explosion of Filipino players getting recognition internationally. Dennis Orcullo got his first international triumph at the World Pool League in Poland via an invitation gotten for him by BSCP. Antonio Gabica won his Asian Gold Medal for pool because BSCP fielded him in competition. Ronato Alcano got his big break via the 2006 world Pool Championship in Manila. Marlon Manalo got his start through the BSCP system of nurturing talent. Lee Van Corteza got recognition through the many opportunities given him by the BSCP. The list goes on.
- end of part 1 -
