BAP won’t honor RP 5

It seems the Philippines will end up with two teams for the Southeast Asian Basketball Association championship in Singapore in June. The matter of who will coach and who will play is far from decided. Unless you hear the side of the BAP.

In an exclusive interview with The Star, Basketball Association of the Philippines vice-president for the Visayas Filomeno "Boy" Codiñera stressed that the BAP is the sole authority on the matter, and that the SEABA plan was decided in a board meeting at the National Inter Collegiate Championships in Dumaguete two months ago.

"Right then and there, it was decided that the head coach would be Boycie Zamar," clarified Codiñera, speaking in a long-distance call from the national Little League finals in Nueva Ecija. "And when you name a coach, he has the right to pick the players. The BAP is not run by just Graham Lim. That was a decision of the BAP board."

The team in question, bankrolled by Cebuana Lhuillier, was practically declared disbanded by a group headed by Philippine Olympic Committee president Jose "Peping" Cojuangco last week. Codiñera, father of PBA veterans Harmon, Jerry and Pat, says the declaration was immaterial.

"That cannot be," the baseball and softball legend says. "That is a matter for the BAP board to decide. We welcome the offer to help, but they cannot just come in and take over, whether they are POC, PBA or whoever."

Codiñera recalled that, in 1986, the selection of Joe Lipa as national coach also raised protests.

"But he proved that he was one of our brilliant coaches. What will happen to our many promising amateur coaches?"

Codiñera also said that the use of the caveat "national interest" does not justify the intrusion of the POC.

"The situation in Philippine basketball is not the fault of Graham Lim," Codiñera expounds. "It is a product of the times. They should look at that. If they say it’s a matter of national interest, then they should look at other NSAs, other sports that don’t even have a chance to medal."

The RP Cebuana Lhuillier team has continued practicing on its own, despite the POC-led declaration of unified practices at the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center beginning today.