MVP tells Villafuerte: SBP deals above board

BAP-SBP president Manny V. Pangilinan yesterday denied all accusations hurled by BAP-SBP chairman and Rep. Luis Villafuerte over the weekend and maintained that his management of the cage body has been above board.

Pangilinan, who took over the cage helm following the merger of the BAP and SBP and after the FIBA suspension on RP was lifted last year, took strong exception to three points raised by Villafuerte, who charged the former of bypassing and failing to recognize him (Villarfuerte) as chair of the BAP-SBP.

“I have indeed raised your chairmanship a number of times, officially and unofficially, with the BAP trustees but no BAP trustee has to date agreed to either retire or resign,” said Pangilinan in a letter to Villafuerte. “Your election to the board can be made effective only upon a vacancy being created because all board seats were then, as now, occupied in full.”

This developed as FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann reiterated FIBA’s support to the leadership of the BAP-SBP after the world governing body for the sport was furnished a copy by Villafuerte regarding his complaint.

Villafuerte was elected chairman of the BAP-SBP after he was nominated by the BAP under the Bangkok Agreement, reached on Feb. 4, 2007 that paved the way for the merger of the BAP and SBP with FIBA’s (International Basketball Federation) approval.

In a letter to Pangilinan, Villafuerte scored the BAP-SBP leadership for its deliberate and gross attempt to ignore his role as BAP-SBP chair despite the written stipulation in the Bangkok Agreement.

Villafuerte also charged that Pangilinan has continuously refused to recognize the new nominees of the BAP to the BAP-SBP board of trustees considering that the regular nominees of BAP have long ceased to represent the interest of the latter.

But Pangilinan reiterated that no BAP-nominated trustee has agreed to step down and stressed that there is still no vacancy in the board.

The PLDT-Smart top honcho also clarified that no corporation has ever been formed to receive money from Tao Corp. and Nokia even as he made it clear that these funds are not diverted for a purpose other than the National Basketball Youth Development as insinuated by Villafuerte.

“I will never tolerate a misdemeanor of this kind and neither will Tao Corp. and Nokia allow this,” said Pangilinan. “In fact, Tao Corp. and Nokia have required that all funds disbursed for this purpose are to have dual signatories, one from their side and the other from BAP-SBP.”    – Dante Navarro