ARE FILIPINA VOLLEYBALL PLAYERS BEING USED TO ADVANCE THE INTERESTS OF CERTAIN GROUPS ?

The Shakey's V-League selection is all set to compete in the Southeast Asian Zonals in Vietnam from June 13-16, 2013. Composed of top volleyball players from the V-League, the selection carries the hope of the country of advancing to the Asian Zonals.

The selection was hastily formed after the Bomberinas lost their gold medal match against Air Force during the Philippine National Games. The Bomberinas, after four months of training, was immediately dropped by POC and PSC as Philippine representatives after the unexpected defeat. To honor its commitment to Asian Volleyball Confederation, POC turned to the organizers of Shakey's V-League to form a selection. POC claims that sanctions are to be served to the Philippines should the country fail to send a team to Vietnam.

I can't help but remember the same ploy used by POC in dismantling the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation and its team. In 2010, POC  said that IOC issued a directive saying that the Philippines will be suspended from the Olympics should PDBF continue to exist as a separate federation from the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation. Despite the numerous gold medals and a world record to boot, PDBF and its team were eventually dismantled and dissolved by virtue of a so-called directive. The funny thing is, both IOC and US dragon boat coach McNamara denied that there was a directive. I still have in my possession the statements of the IOC and Coach McNamara denying that a directive was issued by IOC.

The way I see it, politics is the main reason why Philippine volleyball is in such a mess. Tats Suzara came into the picture as his commercial league failed to materialize. He blames Gener Dungo for sabotaging his commercial league which I think motivated him to conduct his controversial try-outs without the approval of Dungo. POC dipped its fingers in the Southeast Asian Zonals to further aggravate the situation. POC has no business in taking on a task that clearly belongs to PVF. Yet, POC chose to write to AVC to be able to send its own team to the zonals. Also, PSC took a lot of time to release the funds being asked by PVF to be able to compete in tournaments abroad. Yet, when it was the POC that was sending a selection to Vietnam, PSC immediately released funds for the airfare of the entire team. It is interesting to note that Gener Dungo is not a Cojuangco man. Dungo ran against Cojuangco's ticket and won. I am not saying that Dungo is without blame. But not being a Cojuangco man certainly does not help Dungo.

In all these, the volleyball players are being used as pawns to serve the interests of certain groups. I hope that the selection to Vietnam exceeds expectations. Only a clear victory will force POC, PSC and PVF to seriously consider the selection as the national team. But will Ricky Palou allow his selection to be named the national team without him being named the PVF president ? Palou, after all, has openly expressed his desire to become the next PVF president.

If the selection fails to win the Southeast Asian Zonals, I could see the players being thrown away like a used rag that has served its purpose. As the saying goes, that's the way the cookie crumbles.