MANILA, 20 June 2003 — Will it be the end of the road for Fil-shams in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)?
Sen. Robert Barbers, chairman of the committee of games, amusements and sports that investigated the alleged existence of fake Fil-foreign players since November of last year, has hinted on deportation for Filipino-foreign players who had submitted falsified documents in trying to prove Filipino descent to play in the pro league.
Barbers said his legal staff is studying the possibility of filing of appropriate charges against players involved.
He confirmed that about three to four of the six players summoned by his committee would be sanctioned. But he refused to divulge the names of the Fil-shams whose days are “numbered”.
“I don’t want to preempt the formal disclosure of the recommendations of the committee members,” Barbers said.
Barbers also refused to confirm whether immigration and justice officials would be penalized for allegedly issuing forged documents to prove the players’ Filipino ancestry.
Even the supposed Fil-Am players of the PBA who are abroad will not be spared.
“It doesn’t make a difference if they are around or out of the country as long as we could come up with the recommendation,” he said.
Barbers disclosed that members of his legal staff are in the process of “collating the different recommendations from the nine-member committee so that we could come up with a unified report” on the probe.
But he assured the public that the report would be exhaustive.
“We will have a discussion on the specific cases of the players involved,” said Barbers.
Among those “dubious” Fil-foreign players under pressure from the Senate probe are Talk ‘N’Text’s Asi Taulava, Coca-Cola’s Rudy Hatfield, Barangay Ginebra’s Eric Menk, Alaska’s Jonathan Ordonio, San Miguel Beer’s Dorian Pe?a and Purefoods center Andy Seigle.
All six claimed during committee hearings that they were properly documented by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“The documents we have secured have fortified our position in making drastic recommendation like filing a case and deportation. The legal staff is reviewing this right now in hope of coming up with strong recommendations for those who violated laws in our country,” Barbers said.
Sen. Robert Jaworski, himself a former basketball player and a panel member, said he will move for the sanction of some concerned government officials, particularly those in the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Justic for administrative lapses.
In some cases, Sen. Jaworski added that it was found out that some players are carrying more that one birth certificate.
“The BI, they have to be more on their toes. We also have to understand that up to a certain degree there were some interactions from the BI to the DoJ that we now have to streamline so that they will be singing the same tune,” he said.
He was referring to the conflicting claims made by the BI and the DoJ on the government policy involving the issuance of certificates of half-Filipino players attesting their right to Filipino citizenship.
“I would like to respect the findings of the chairman. I would like to go through it. I’m sure on one of the basic reasons this (deportation recommendation) was decided on was precisely because of the spurious documents,” he said.
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 rebutt it,” said Barbers.
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 rebutt 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.
The 6-foot-8 cager also claimed he had visited San Jose once in 1999, the year he got deported, and got to meet his cousin Frank Hernandez. But in the investigation gathered by Barbers’ battery of probers, the San Jose parish priest denied having any records of Ana Hernandez, the alleged grandmother of Taulava. At the same time, the Hernandez clan from San Jose belied Taulava’s claims that he hails from that province.
Aside from Taulava, the papers presented by Menk are also questionable. The committee found out Menk’s mother had become a US citizen two years before he was born in 1972. Barbers also said the papers submitted by Ordonio, Peek and Hatfield are still being scrutinized.
Earlier, PBA Commissioner Noli Eala challenged the PPAP to file the appropriate action against alleged fake Fil-foreign players.
Eala was reacting to a statement attributed to PPAP spokesman Jojo Lastimosa calling Fil-foreign players, who submitted dubious documents, to leave the country quietly or face charges of falsification of public documents.
