FIBA upholds polls; POC defers action

The International Basketball Federation Monday night officially informed the Philippine Olympic Committee of the results of last Sunday’s Basketball Association of the Philippines elections where Quintellano "Tiny" Literal, in the absence of chief rival Gonzalo "Lito" Puyat, was given a fresh four-year mandate by the 21-man electorate.

However, POC president Celso Dayrit said the FIBA letter, which was also sent to the IOC, the ABC and the office of Literal, cannot compel the POC to recognize the results because the matter still has to be taken up by the POC executive council or the general assembly.

"It’s the authority of the POC general assembly to recognize a national sports association. That’s why we will tackle this in our next meeting on the last Wednesday of this month," said Dayrit. "The decision is not for one man alone to make. And as I’ve said, let’s first focus on the SEA Games participation of our athletes."

Puyat’s camp, which protested the holding of the election, was not furnished a copy of the FIBA letter.

Patrick Baumann, FIBA deputy secretary-general, raised three points in his letter to Dayrit. First is that the mediation/arbitration was unsuccessful because Puyat was absent; second is that the FIBA, therefore, decided to proceed with the elections won by Literal; and third is that the FIBA suspension on the BAP has been lifted.

Baumann supervised the elections at the Century Park Hotel along with Asian Basketball Confederation president Carl Ching and his secretary-general Yeoh Choo Hock. The International Olympic Committee and the POC did not join the exercise after the latter declared the day before that it still recognized Puyat as the rightful BAP head.

Philippine Sports Commission chairman Carlos Tuason yesterday said the government sports agency, which gives financial assistance only to sports associations that are recognized by the POC, is taking a hands-off policy regarding the BAP row that led the FIBA in suspending the BAP last June 22. "We don’t want to dip our hands on the BAP issue. It’s purely a POC matter," said Tuason.