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This column’s edition last Monday, titled, “Pool row wrecking
the sport,” drew an unusually large number of reactions from
readers—many of whom still have to grasp what is really at stake.
Evidently, billiards has a huge following in the
Philippines, which is home to some five million pool players. This
is according to a survey done by Social Weather Stations headed by
Mahar Mangahas, himself an aficionado of this exacting and
fascinating sport.
In response to the reader feedback, this column
explores the controversy further.
Two managers—Perry Mariano (no relation to
this columnist) and Aristeo Puyat—have bolted the Billiards &
Snookers Congress of the Philippines and have forbidden their
players to participate tournaments sponsored by the BSCP and
organized by Raya Sports.
According to BSCP chairman and Raya Sports
president Yen Makabenta, boycott is a familiar tactic of Puyat who
for the better part of two decades had been using it against the
BSCP in the selection of players for the Southeast Asian Games and
Asian Games. At least two of the country’s top pool players, Efren
“Bata” Reyes and Francisco “Django” Bustamante, have missed
many chances—and not just twice, as claimed by some quarters—to
represent the flag because of the power plays of their manager Puyat.
The irony is that the repeated boycott, more
often than not, has backfired on the instigators themselves.
In the 1998 Asian Games Puyat sought to deprive
the Philippine team of A and B players, leaving the BSCP to scrape
the proverbial bottom of the barrel. However, Gandy Valle and Snooky
Villanueva won a gold medal at the Asiad.
In the 2005 SEA Games Puyat withdrew his players
from the RP team at the last hour after insisting during the
preparations that only they should play. Result: the RP team won
eight gold medals.
In the national championship the absent Reyes
and Bustamante were not missed. Their absence only reinforced the
impression that their best years are behind them and they cannot win
anymore.
Irreconcilable differences
The Philippine Olympic Committee has called on
the two sides in the ongoing pool row to mend their
differences—but they may be irreconcilable.
At a press conference last week, BSCP president
Ernesto Fajardo said: “Enough. Never again will we allow our
association and the Philippine billiards community to be held
hostage by individuals or groups pursuing their private agendas.”
In reply to the boycott announced by Perry
Mariano and Aristeo Puyat, billiards patrons led by BSCP treasurer
Sebastian Chua have established the Philippine Billiards Development
Foundation (PBDF), which will henceforth undertake the support and
training of a national pool of players of different age levels.
Significantly, the PBDF has offered players
monthly financial assistance and a no-commission policy on
winnings—in stark contrast to the 40 percent extracted by the
likes of Perry Mariano from their players’ winnings and bonuses.
The PBDF has already bagged some major
catches: Marlon Manalo, Antonio Gabica of Perry Mariano’s own
Bugsy Promotions and Renemar David, a player managed by Edwin Reyes,
spokesman for the Perry Mariano-Aristeo Puyat faction.
“The exodus has begun,” said PBDF executive
director Jun Diokno.
Of equal concern to the billiards community is
the boycott instigators’ disregard for international competition.
Insular agenda
According to the BSCP, Perry Mariano and Aristeo
Puyat have acknowledged that they couldn’t care less about having
foreign players play on Philippine venues. Their agenda is insular.
Their players are just out to cash paychecks, not win world titles.
This is a huge comedown from the dreams and
excitement that marked the 2007 World Pool Championship at the
Araneta Coliseum last November. Perhaps it is better that Filipino
pool go through this ordeal now rather than papering over the
problems.
The crushing issue of illegal gambling and
game-fixing staring through the scheme of a pool team league, as
proposed by Perry Mariano and Aristeo Puyat, must certainly be
faced. Filipino pool cannot move forward if dragged by this
debilitating conflict of vision—one faction that sees pool as
indubitably an individual sport like tennis and golf, and another
seeking to turn it into a team sport like basketball.
The stakes are high—that is why some are
playing dirty.
I have no difficulty in choosing a side here.
The BSCP and Raya Sports, who have turned the Philippines into an
epicenter of pool, deserve the public’s support.
The opportunists must be stopped. The country
cannot afford to let them win.
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