AS far as the Philippine Olympic Committee is concerned, the billiards team led by Dennis Orcollo is the rightful national team.
In a letter to the Philippine Sports Commission, POC president Jose Cojuangco Jr. has requested that the 2012 national lineup that also includes Iris Ranola and Rubilen Amit be retained until the leadership issues in the Billiard Sports Confederation of the Philippines is resolved.
“As the BSCP has current leadership issues, may (the POC) request that the 2012 lineup of billiards’ athletes and coaches which was approved by the PSC be put on ‘status quo’ and any replacement of the said lineup by the BSCP be set aside until the association’s leadership issues have been resolved,” said Cojuangco in the letter.
“With this, it is deemed appropriate that the said lineup continuously receive their monthly allowances from the PSC.”
Quick to act, the PSC had already stated that they will still honor the Orcollo-led lineup since they are part of the priority athletes program of the government sports agency.
BSCP president Arturo Ilagan had earlier written a a letter to the PSC dated December 26 informing the government's sports agency that they are replacing the Orcollo-led national team with “young and talented” players that will most likely play for the country in this year’s Southeast Asian Games.
Ilagan claimed that the lineup was replaced because Orcollo and Company didn’t sign up for the prioritization program of the PSC because as pros, they cannot commit full-time to the national team as the program mandates.
The BSCP leadership is in a quandary with Ilagan and billiards patron Aristeo Puyat both claiming to be the rightful head.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
