POC, PSC urged to recognize cage body

Nic Jorge, leader of the court-recognized Basketball Association of the Philippines Inc. (BAPI), yesterday appealed to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) to uphold the rule of law and recognize the BAPI as the only legal national association for the sport.

The Court of Appeals recently declared the BAPI as the legal NSA for basketball, effectively nullifying the existence of the Basketball Association of the Philippines, which the CA ruled is one and the same with the BAPI, which incorporated with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following a government ruling on all recipients of financial help.

In recognizing Jorge’s group as the legal BAPI, the CA dismissed the case filed by former BAP president Godofredo Jalasco, who sought a restraining order against Jorge’s BAPI while taking over its functions as the legal association for the sport and receiving financial help from the PSC since 1995.

The Court of Appeals’ 13th Division headed by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr. also upheld the decision of Manila RTC Branch 12 declaring Jorge’s BAPI as the rightful Basketball Association of the Philippines when it issued the verdict it promulgated as final and executory last Aug. 14. The court’s decision also maintained status quo in the BAPI prior to the Aug. 14, 1995 elections called by former BAP president Gonzalo "Lito" Puyat, wherein Puyat quit the presidency in favor of Jalasco but appointed himself as chairman — a new position in the BAP.

The 1995 BAP election, however, was effectively nullified by the court, which ruled that BAP now exists as the BAPI following its incorporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Dec. 22, 1994 with Jorge, Puyat, Augusto Villanueva, Lucrecio Calo and Rolando Omampo as incorporators.

"I have asked PSC chairman Eric Buhain and POC president Celso Dayrit to effectively recognize the BAPI as ordered by the court," Jorge said. "This would help put Philippine basketball back in its proper course and make its actions legal."