by rick olivares
The other week, the Federation de International
Volleyball (FIVB) sent a memo signifying their recognition of the newly
organized Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. (LVP) as the National Sports
Association. It was puzzling because I thought that technically, there is the
existing NSA in the Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) even if the
international federation along with the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC)
seems unhappy with the current local leadership.
What makes this a bad comedy is that officials from
this PVF left and formed a new PVF! Then when there were problems they went
back to the old PVF. Is this even possible? Is this ethical or even legal? Does
this smack of desperation of wanting to be in power?
Did the FIVB memo solve the problem? Far from it. It
is now officially to borrow military jargon, a SNAFU (if you don’t know what
that acronym means go look it up and as crass as what it may stand for it is a
massive understatement).
In a somewhat surprising twist just the other day, the
top dog of the Philippine Olympic Committee asked one of its officials who has
been working to fix the volleyball mess to accommodate two of the supposed
officers of the embattled PVF into the new LVP. But it doesn’t end there, this
top dog unequivocally asked for the removal of one of the Philippine Super Liga
(PSL) official who is supposed to be part of the LVP.
It so happens that this PSL officer is also with the
AVC.
It seems that the two PVF officials asked a certain
congressman to intercede and bypass this POC official to go straight to the
boss. If this is true then does this mean they are jumping ship even if they
recently went through alleged elections (according to a coach who was present
in that proceeding, it was all for show and rigged)?
Now if so, this isn’t the first time about jumping
ship. One of them previously went to this congressman who first asked the POC
official involved in the volleyball mess if this PVF officer can be
accommodated as General-Secretary in the new LVP! So this is twice now! It
really is every man for himself.
The way I look at it, asking for the removal of this
AVC-PSL official is doing a Shylock – demanding their pound of flesh – by way
of this ouster.
It is entirely possible they believe that this
AVC-PSL official engineered these current troubles by “influencing” the AVC and
FIVB into calling for an investigation into the PVF. And the record is out
there as the letter from the AVC to the POC clearly states this PSL-AVC
official.
And some of the LVP people are not enamored of this
PSL-AVC officer who they have had run-ins before. But it seems for these other
LVP officials he is the lesser evil as opposed to the PVF men who they do not
like for various reasons.
However will this new development fly? In my opinion,
the AVC will protect its own. And what that means, hell, I there are many
scenarios.
One is they will altogether not approve both the LVP
and the PVF effectively ending any Philippine participation in the upcoming
Southeast Asian Games.
I understand from a former PVF official who is no
longer active that we came close to being suspended before for various
offences.
What happens in our NSAs is really a microcosm of
what goes on in the national government and for ages now.
Who am I rooting for? No one. I just hope the people
up there do what is right for the sport and that the parties with agendas are put
in their place.
This is the SBP-BAP fiasco all over again. Maybe its just me, but the root cause is that both groups are salivating over the multimillion peso funding PLDT is willing to give to the national team
ReplyDeleteRick, we can participate in the SEA Games even without AVC-FIVB recognition. The SEA Games is an IOC affair. The POC has the power to field whoever it wishes. Anyway, now that the mess is still on, I think LVP wil continue to hold its election in compliance with the provisionary recognition given by the FIVB. But since the POC will not recognize it unless it accomodates Chavez and Camangian, it will fail to secure POC recognition and wouldn't send a team to the SEA Games. However, LVP will still gain the upperhand in a LOT of FIVB-AVC tournaments like the Women's U23 which will be held here in May. In short, Peping's endorsement of Chavez to be LVP president wouldn't fly as stakeholders seem loyal in Romasanta and Suzara. And it is just a minor bump towards achieving international presence in volleyball.
ReplyDeleteout of the frying pan into the fire
ReplyDeleteThe problem starts when Romasanta of POC interferes in the PVF affairs and created a "supposedly new" volleyball federation. Instead of helping Philippine volleyball, he has created a more complicated scenario that places everything uncertain including our participation to SEA games and U23 championship... He should fix the mess he has created...
ReplyDelete