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RHEA NAVARRO of the Qatar Basketball Federation called the other day regarding a letter she wanted to secure from the PSC, but we ended up discussing at length the latest SBP-BAP issue.
?How come the BAP never showed up at the Geneva hearing?? Rhea wanted to know.
?It?s hard to buy the story that they were denied visas by the Swiss Embassy. The SBP got visas, why not them??
Rhea said she has her own theory about the BAP?s nonappearance, but she?d rather keep it to herself.
* * *
I told Rhea that from what I heard, the SBP had applied for a Swiss visa on July 7, two days earlier than the BAP people who filed their application on July 9.
The BAP was asked by the Embassy to return on July 14 for an interview.
From what I understand though, despite the delay, BAP president Prospero ?Butch? Pichay and his small entourage could have made it in time for the second day of the hearing. He had even made reservations for three people at the Movenpick Hotel, which meant that he had all the intention to go to Geneva.
And this is what made Rhea ? as well as I ? wonder.
What made the former congressman from Surigao cancel the trip?
* * *
While Rhea was still speculating on what might have been if at least one representative from the BAP made an appearance. I advised her to stop thinking about it.
I told her that everything was all moot now.
Still, Rhea, who works in the office of Fiba-Asia president Sheikh Saud Al Thani, continued to wonder. She was also very curious to find out the crux of the BAP?s 22-page position paper which it had submitted to the Fiba special commission composed of Boris Stankovic, Carl Ching Men Ky and lawyer Ken Madsen.
If they had prepared such a lengthy document, then chances are they had really intended to go to Geneva, she thought.
According to a colleague, he has come across an abridged version of this position paper.
Among others, the BAP, he said, had petitioned that BAP chair Luis Villafuerte be installed as chair of the BAP-SBP, with Manny Pangilinan being retained as president.
The BAP also recommended that a secretary general be appointed from the SBP group and a deputy secretary general from the BAP group.
?Who knows, had they made it to Geneva, they may have gotten some concessions. But now it appears that they?re completely out of the picture,? said my wizened colleague.
* * *
My eyes grew as big as saucers when I heard two top-ranking media executives talking openly about a world-renowned sports figure and the object of his obsession, a popular TV host.
?But this sportsman has many obsessions,? I protested. ?There?s this buxom actress, this actress with whom he costarred in a film. Somebody told me that he is living out his former fantasies when he was still a nobody.?
One of the executives said the sportsman produced the flick to be near the TV host first and foremost.
?He?s been doing everything to be near her. In a manner of saying, he got to first base because he was able to kiss her, but that?s only on screen. Hindi siya talaga ma ka-first base [He could not even reach first base],? he said.
I asked the executive if it was possible that the lady host continues to be a challenge to the sportsman, only because his amorous advances continue to be repelled. Once she succumbs, she may eventually fall by the wayside.
The TV host is currently being linked to a PBA star from a champion team.
