MANILA, 16 May 2003 — After seven highly publicized hearings that stretched almost seven months, the Senate has finally wrapped up its inquiry on the controversial “Fil-Sham” issue in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), confident it had gathered enough evidence to pin down fake foreign-bred players.
The Senate Committee on Games and Sports, headed by Sen. Robert Barbers, concluded that at least five mainstays in the PBA, who formally claimed Filipino lineage, have no roots in the Philippines.
It is now in the process of drafting a report that will lead on the next course of action to be taken against some of the players with allegedly fraudulent citizenship papers.
“We have a very strong position against some of these players (Fil-shams),” said Barbers. “We confronted them with the findings and, unfortunately, we were not able to get convincing answers from them.”
The Senate committee named the players whose documentation as half-Filipino was dubious as Asi Taulava of Talk ‘N’ Text, Jon Ordonio and Ali Peek of Alaska, Dorian Pe?a of San Miguel Beer, and Rudolf Hatfield of Coca-Cola. The committee made an investigation and visited the place of birth of people that these players have claimed to be their relatives but could not find their birth, baptismal, residential “and even death certificates.” The committee wrapped up evidence and pieces of information already divulged against some dubious Fil-Ams in previous hearings. Barbers said the “Fil-shams” failed to satisfy his series of questions regarding their true bloodlines.
“We’ve confronted them with regard to the findings and issues. Now we’re simply preparing a draft report after all the inputs and statements are collated. Then we’d present it to the plenary before we make the final report. These Fil-Ams were not even able to rebut it,” said Barbers.
According to Barbers, the committee, which also included Senators John Osme?a and Robert Jaworski, will need at least two weeks to finalize its findings before submitting a final report to the plenary.
The committee will then meet to decide on the recommendations it would make in the final report. But Barbers admitted that the Committee can do no more than to make recommendations on the issue.
“The power of the committee is only to make a recommendation. Whatever action we will take under the circumstances should be approved by the majority,” Barbers said.
Asked if the body would recommend the prosecution of the Fil-Ams, Barbers said: “I would say a few of them, based on the documents in our possession.” A most likely course of action is for the Senate Committee to turn over its findings to the PBA Players’ Association which would be tasked to file the necessary charges in court.
Other alleged “Fil-shams” who have been grilled by the Senate Committee include Eric Menk, Rob Duat, Nic Belasco, Andy Seigle, Rafi Reavis and John Arigo, among others.
The findings mostly unearthed questionable entries on the documents the Fil-foreign players submitted to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation and the Department of Justice to back up their claim to Filipino citizenship.
The “Fil-shams” presented little evidence, if none at all, to rebut Barbers’ findings pointing to them as “fake.”
A highlight of the final hearing was the admission of Yuri del Valle, municipal civil registrar of the town of San Jose in Northern Samar province, that he helped fix the papers of Taulava upon the request of Don Raymundo “Boy” Daza, brother of former Samar congressman and now Gov. Raul Daza. Del Valle admitted he violated National Statistics Office policy when he certified that his registrar had records of the birth and death certificates of Taulava’s s grandmother “when in fact there were none.” Del Valle said he did what he did because Daza was related to the former congressman and now governor of Samar.
“Who could refuse the brother of a former congressman?” Del Valle said during the hearing. But Governor Daza denied allegations he and his brother helped fix the papers of Taulava to make it appear that the PBA star has Filipino lineage. Daza insisted that Taulava, together with those of other PBA mainstays, has relatives in Samar. Daza said del Valle was lying when he claimed that Taulava had no descendants in the province. “It is public knowledge here that Mr. Taulava has descendants in one of the families here in the province. The report (that he has no roots in the province) is not true,” said Daza. He said the revelations made by Del Valle were politically motivated.
But Daza failed to mention who could have influenced Del Valle to make such claim.
Barbers also said in the hearing that a check made by his committee showed that the Hernandez clan of Samar, to which Taulava said he was also related, had denied such kinship. Barbers said his committee could not find papers of the grandmother of Taulava in Northern Samar; the grandparents of Ordo?o in La Union province; Peek’s grandfather in Makati; Pe?a’s grandfather in Negros Occidental province and Hatfield’s grandfather in La Union. Taulava, who is currently enjoying his finest year in the PBA since joining the pro league in season, denied knowing Boy Daza, but mentioned that he knew Paul Daza, apparently the son of Gov. Daza. PBA legal counsel Orlando Salatandre said that based on the proceedings, he believes there is an international syndicate working side-by-side with some officials from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, as well as Filipino agents, who brought these Fil-foreign players to the country.
With this revelation, Barbers dropped the bomb on the supposed Filipino-foreign players, making them qualified for deportation for being “fake Pinoys” should the complainant — the Professional Basketball Players Association, decides to take appropriate actions against them.
