Muay expert says guard provoked him

A security guard of the Alabang Country Club grabbed Muaythai Association of the Philippines (MAP) president Roberto Valdez thrice unprovoked, sparking the altercation before the Philippine Olympic Committee elections Friday.

This was Valdez’s reaction to reports that he had assaulted the unnamed guard on his way to the POC elections.

“I wasn’t even supposed to go, since we’re not a voting member,” Valdez told The STAR in an exclusive interview. “I saw (IOC representative) Mr. Frank Elizalde a few days before, and told him we won a gold at the World Martial Arts Games. He asked me to submit my report to him at the elections.”

By Valdez’s account, he arrived at the club alone between 11:30 and 12 noon, wearing his long-sleeved barong bearing the POC logo and Philippine flag. The lobby guards politely gave him directions to the upstairs function room where the elections were to be held at 1 p.m.

“I was walking along the upstairs hall, when a guard chased me and blocked my way,” Valdez recounted in the vernacular. “He told me I couldn’t go there. I explained that I was there to see Mr. Elizalde. The guard suddenly grabbed the sleeve of my barong. I told him that he shouldn’t do that, because that was insulting.”

Wanting to avoid a confrontation, the muaythai master instead asked directions for the men’s room, when the guard grabbed him by the sleeve again.

“I was moving away, trying to avoid the guard touching me, when he grabbed me by the shirt a third time,” Valdez, the secretary-general of the Asian Muay Federation recalled. “I don’t recall what happened next, but I remember the guard suddenly being sprawled on the floor.”

Other security personnel and POC members arrived. Former Finance Secretary Jose Pardo, a member of the MAP advisory board whom Valdez visited prior to going to Alabang Country Club, followed to intercede. Barangay and police officials also came, and the incident was settled.

“If I did anything to the guard, I apologize, but he also shouldn’t have been so rude in the first place,” the soft-spoken NSA head explained. “I did not go there with any intention of hurting anyone, and I’m sorry for any misunderstanding.”