Rp Wrestlers Fight Back

NEWS RELEASE 03 April 2009

Young Idealistic Athletes Take on the Evils in Philippine Wrestling This morning, members of the Wrestling Association of the Philippines (WAP), headed by their new President and wrestling coach, Juan Albert Balde, trooped to the Manila City Hall to give moral support to fellow members Marcus Valda and Robertson Tubosa as they file criminal charges against former WAP Chairman, Manuel Espejo and former WAP President, Vincent Piccio III. The charges stem from alleged appropriation of allowances intended for athletes, as well as withholding of uniforms and shoes issued by the Philippine Sports Commission. In his complaint-affidavit, Valda, who has given honor to the country as a threetime SEA Games gold medalist, alleged that he was duped to give Espejo Php 55,000.00 of his Php 70,000.00 allowance from the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) intended for his expenses for the 2006 World Wrestling Championships in Guangzhou, China. The pretense was that the money, according to Espejo, would allegedly be used to pay for his board and lodging. However, Valda discovered that those items were already shouldered by the PSC. The same modus operandi was allegedly employed to victimize seven (7) of his other fellow athletes. Tubosa is a junior athlete and considered as the future of Philippine wrestling. In his complaint-affidavit, he claims that right after the Asian Junior Championship held in Manila in June 2007, Piccio allegedly took away and collected from him and other athletes their wrestling uniforms, including the shoes donated by the South Korean Wrestling Federation to the Philippine Junior Wrestling Team. They were never able see or use these uniforms again. Worse, added Tubosa, during the 2008 Qatar Asian Junior Championships, Tubosa and other fellow junior athletes were allegedly made to wear sub-standard uniforms that obviously came from ukay-ukay or thrift shops despite supplies and budget for each competition being duly provided for by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC). Espejo and Piccio were the officers who had the custody and responsibility over the funds and properties of WAP, the National Sports Association for wrestling. Apart from these complaints, Balde claims that Espejo and Piccio are reportedly responsible for the mishandling of WAP affairs evidenced by the inability of the Philippines to send even a single wrestler to any of the Olympic qualifying tournaments of the international federation (FILA) last year, thereby disqualifying by default potential Olympians for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Likewise, Espejo and Piccio allegedly embarrassed the Philippines with the WAP’s poorly promoted and badly organized hosting of the 2008 Asian Junior Wrestling Championship held in Qatar. Further, Espejo and Piccio neglected their duties to actively promote the sport of wrestling in the country. Despite being the oldest sport, wrestling is not part of Palarong Pambansa and has failed to penetrate the SCUAA, NCAA, UAAP or any inter-scholastic league. “These athletes are our heroes. Marcus (Valda) and Robertson (Tubosa) are the present and the future of Philippine wrestling.” says WAP counsel, Atty. Kit Belmonte. “We have discussed this matter thoroughly and they have decided to make this move not only as a vindication of their rights, but more in defense of the welfare of their fellow

wrestlers.” Atty. Belmonte adds that: “There may be a need for legislative reforms especially in relation to the nature of the National Sports Associations (NSA’s), such as WAP. NSA’s are allocated budget from the national treasury through the Philippine Sports Commission. Hence, stricter guidelines in the handling of funds should be put in place to protect the misuse and abuse of these public funds by NSA officials.” NSA’s are private, non-profit organizations recognized as governing bodies in their respective sports. They are exclusively responsible for participation of athletes in various competitions. According to Balde, “This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are other wrestlers who have already signified their intent to file similar formal complaints. However, a few wrestlers, who are a part of the military, seem to be reluctant to come out as Espejo and Piccio appear to have a clout in the armed forces with the former being a retired colonel and the latter being a son of a former air force chief.” Espejo and Piccio have been in the reins of power in WAP for more than a decade. They allegedly refuse to recognize the new set of officers led by the young and idealistic coach Balde.