Basketball Brouhaha

By Jesus a. Garcia Jr.

THE Basketball Referees Commission, better known as BARECOM, is the country’s pioneer in amateur basketball officiating group licensed by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) and the only basketball group that is recognized by FIBA, the world governing body for non-professional basketball. No question about that.

In late 2004, this group was disturbed when Jose “Peping” Cojuangco and company took over the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) and expelled BAP from its membership in the National Sports Associations (NSA) due to some faux pas committed by the honchos that the pioneer group opposed.

It’s a long cock-and-bull story and I guess you, basketball aficionados, are aware of the truth. No need to elaborate.

The leaders of BAP and its ally, the BARECOM, cried foul and protested their expulsion. This imbroglio reached FIBA and in the long run, the world governing body suspended our country from any international competition sanctioned by FIBA, including the 2005 SEA Games where we were the host and the defending titlist.

Sports scribes described it is ‘one for the books’ being the first time for such a situation to happen since the birth of SEA Games in 1977.

Obviously, it was a power struggle at pataasan ng ihi, ‘ika nga.

The issues were finally resolved early this year with BAP adopting a new name — the BAP-SBP (Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas), which was accepted by FIBA. It paved the way for the Philippines to rejoin the international games. The first was the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup recently held in Tehran, Iran where we landed fourth and the latest was the SEABA (Southeast Asian Basketball Association) meet where our national five easily recaptured the title.

Our national quintet’s main aim is to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics that is if we can pass the qualifying test in Asia to be held in Japan next month.

I believe we can and I hope we do. But I seriously doubt it.

Our Team Philippines was just assembled last March after two and a half years of suspension and the 100 percent team jelling is not yet there. In team sport, experts say a minimum of nine months of practicing and playing together matters a lot.

Due to the emergence of the group called SBP, some regions tired of being mere tools of BAP have formed their own coterie and tried to affiliate with SBP, especially the basketball officiating sector. And one of this is our region with UPang Webczars head coach Angel Gumarang taking the executive directorship of the newly formed National Referees Commission (NARECOM) and Robert Amado, Jr. as the commissioner.

Asked why they formed the new group when BARECOM still exists, Gumarang said, “Two is better than one to avoid dominance and monopoly, so it’s high time for a change, move forward to improve the officiating for the good of the people concerned, especially the players and the spectators.”

“Officiating must always be done unbiased and without fear to avoid gaffes that usually cause anxieties and uproars,” he added.

Informed about the new fledgling group that could prove to be a competitor to BARECOM as far as amateur basketball officiating is concerned, Region 1 commissioner Jon Cansino humbly said, “It’s nice to have another group in our place so there will be a comparison. This is a free country, free enterprise, and anyway both of us have the same direction.”

Asked also if his group plans to bid to officiate the coming annual Pangasinan-PRISAA cagefest slated to unreel either in July or August, Cansino said so far they are not contemplating a bid unless asked by the organizers.

Basketball is unarguably the numero uno sport in the country (despite our height) and so any development is a big deal.

Well, let’s wish them luck and more power. Whoever is chosen for the big games should not be afraid of the ‘unseen hands’ in the success of the league.

That’s my unsolicited advice.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/)

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