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Letter to FIBA' Patrick Baumann and FIBA Asia Executive Committee

1/29/2009

January 29, 2009

Mr. Patrick Baumann
Secretary General
International Basketball Federation (FIBA)
Attention:     FIBA Asia Executive Committee Members

Dear Patrick,

After a long personal talk with you, Patrick, on January 19, 2009 at the Park Royal Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I have decided to stop criticizing you openly and just move to a new dimension that I hope will lead to a better understanding of our case against the BAP-SBP leadership.

As a gentleman, I am apologizing for the harsh criticisms I have hurled against you and Mr. Bob Elphinston, the FIBA president, and I look forward to having a better working relationship with the FIBA Secretariat, particularly FIBA Asia, where I have been a member since 1996.

Furthermore, I am happy to accept your offer, through FIBA Asia Secretary General Dato' Yeoh Choo Hock, to have me reinstated as a member of the FIBA Youth Commission and put me in the good graces of the FIBA family once again.

I truly appreciate the big role Dato' Yeoh has played to bring back unity to the FIBA family.

Before I came to Kuala Lumpur, I first visited Dr. Carl Menky Ching (FIBA Honorary Life President) in Hong Kong to ask for his advice. We both agreed that whatever decision I would make that day must be done in good faith and for the betterment for the FIBA.

I heeded the call of Dato' Yeoh to stop my criticisms against you. Likewise, Carl said he would assist me in resolving the leadership issue in the Philippines' BAP-SBP merger. Carl added that the issue must be resolved on the basis of the Bangkok Agreement that was signed on February 4, 2007. The document, wherein representatives of the FIBA and FIBA Asia were signatories, must be honored and the legitimacy of the results of the June 4, 2008 election must be respected.

I take this opportunity to thank Sheikh Talal F.A.J. Al-Sabah, the FIBA Asia 1st Vice President and FIBA Central Board member, for his wonderful speech in support of my initiative to patch things up with you and Mr. Elphinston. I am really proud of you, Sheikh Talal, for your unqualified support through the years.

I would like to thank FIBA Asia President Sheikh Saud Bin Ali Al-Thani for his trust and confidence in me.

I thank Mr. Hagop Khajirian, the marketing man and FIBA Asia Deputy Secretary General, for his advice and tips to gain our official status in the FIBA.

Lastly, I would like to thank Dr. Borislav Stankovic for coming into the scene and seeing to it that harmony within the FIBA will be preserved and its dignity honored and respected.

I am also grateful to FIBA Asia Board members Mr. Yutaka Misutani and FIBA-Asia Associate Secretary General Mr. Takeshi Ishikawa, FIBA Central Board Member Miss Mabel Ching, FIBA-Asia Treasurer Mr. Quek Hiang Chiang, FIBA Asia Legal Counsel lawyer Gayrika Perusinghe and Miss Xu Lan of China Basketball Association. I appreciated their kindness. They welcomed me with open arms despite the adverse publicity I have been getting lately.

In closing, I urge that the FIBA, and particularly FIBA Asia, to study carefully the Bangkok Agreement. Only in doing so will our honor and integrity remain intact.

Representatives of the FIBA and FIBA Asia were signatories to the Bangkok Agreement. In accordance to that agreement, the merged BAP-SBP organization in the Philippines held a legitimate election on June 4, 2008 and chose officers Congressman Luis R. Villafuerte and Hon. Prospero Pichay as the BAP-SBP Chairman and President, respectively.

Do not be taken for a ride by the group of Manuel Pangilinan because of his marketing promulgation, whose supposed election as BAP-SBP president is illegitimate, deceptive and whose stay in power is being perpetuated by the Philippine Olympic Committee without any legal basis which was started in 2005 whereas the FIBA Secretariat should not take part being use as a tool to destroy its own virtue of integrity, particularly to an original FIBA member since 1936, that is the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).

Very sincerely yours,

GRAHAM C. LIM
Executive Committee Member
FIBA Asia

Contact Address:
Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP)
Unit 214, Cityland Tower 1, Vito Cruz Street,
Malate, Manila, Philippines 1006
Tel-Fax # +632-524 2522
Email:  baplink@yahoo.com

cc.        Dr. Carl Menky Ching, FIBA Honorary Life President
            Dr. Borislav Stankovic, FIBA Secretary General Emeritus
            Dato' Yeoh Choo Hock, FIBA Asia Secretary General
            Mr. Lee Jong-Kul, President, Korea Basketball Association (KBA)
            International Olympic Committee (IOC) Members
            United World Chinese Association
            Chinese Overseas Brotherhood Ltd
            Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP)
            BAP-SBP /Villafuerte/Pichay/Tan/Abundo/Board Members

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Demise of Philippine Basketball

1/20/2009

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Jan. 20, 2009

MR. PATRICK BAUMANN
Secretary General
FIBA

Dear Mr. Baumann,

Firstly, allow me to introduce myself, I am Dr. Ildefonso O. Medina, Jr., a basketball fan and was once the President of the Surigao City Inter Schools Athletic Association and an affiliate of the BAP (Basketball Association of the Philippines) in case you may have forgetten already. Anyway, in case you may not have known yet, YOU and your cohorts at the FIBA and some shameless rich basketball wannabes in the Philippines just destroyed our basketball tradition, our development, and took away the hopes and aspirations of many our youths all over the country because after you took away FIBA's recognition of the BAP. You took away our grassroots development in basketball. WHY?

1. With SBP at the helm of our basketball program, our basketball future has become disfunctional and in disarray. The SBP people are not sold to the idea of having a grassroots program period! They do not have local associations affiliated with them especially from the countryside. While our city is famous all over the world for surfing, the SBP do not even know where Surigao City is situated. Whereas, the BAP has basketball associations affiliated to them from the smallest towns of the country. Even basketball and sports associations at the major urban centers are yet to be affiliated with SBP except those that are commercially focused leagues like the PBL, UAAP and NCAA and they are not even one percent of the total stakeholders of basketball in this country. Despite the almost a year of your illegal recognition of the SBP, these groups have yet to forge an agreement to be with each other's company.

2. The SBP hopes to build a National Team whose players will be recruited from the USA. Their shortsighted approach to building a national team that could instantly compete in international competitions, has practically disqualified pure blooded Filipino Players from becoming members of the National Team. For how can they?, when SBP does not even look at them at all. This kind of proposition by the SBP if allowed to go on will practically stunt the growth, hopes and aspiration of our young Filipino basketball players because their basketball horizon will be limited to local leagues.

There are many more arguments against your unilateral move of not honoring the Bangkok Agreement which you yourself affixed your signature with. You have twisted the provisions of the agreement to your liking and favor your favorite personalities with which you have annointed to run our basketball affairs. But by destroying an institution (BAP), you failed to realize that you have likewise destroyed yourself in the eyes of the majority baskeball loving Filipinos and other Asians you may have disciminated by your actions. For how can we believe you are a man of integrity when you yourself do not honor your word? I'm surprised WHY the people at FIBA still trust you? Maybe you have hypnotic powers or may have vast resources that these people believe in you.

We may be simple people but we are gentlemen and we honor our word. Even the unwritten ones. Unlike you, you have affixed your signature, your honor, your personality and yet you chose not to honor what you have written in that sacred document. Same is true with those who did not. Shame on them! But we have a term for men who do not honor their word. WE CALL THEM FEMININE!!!!! Are you MR. BAUMANN? Maybe you deserve each other because BIRDS OF THE SAME FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER.

I am still hoping you will realize your mistakes and correct them. I do not even know your nationality but if your people will realize what you did, I'm sure they will be ashamed of you. I hope not and they even disown you. And I hope they will eventually. Your racist attitude do not deserve our respect, the same with the people you are working with.

Very truly yours,

Dr. Ildefonso O. Medina, Jr.
Surigao City, Philippines

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Official Complaint and Sanction against Patrick Baumann

1/14/2009

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January 14, 2009

Dato' Yeoh Choo Hock
Secretary General
FIBA Asia

Attn:         FIBA Asia Executive Board Members

Re: Official Complaint and Sanction against Patrick Baumann

        1.    Racial Discrimination Against Asians;
        2.    Dismissal of the Unsigned from the FIBA Youth
               Commission Without Due Process.

Dear Dato' Yeoh,

During the FIBA Asia Executive Board meeting in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran on August 31, 2008, I was advised to file a formal complaint against Mr. Patrick Baumann for his racist remarks and his dismissal of the undersigned as a member of the FIBA Youth Commissioner without due process, and hope this will be taken up during the next FIBA Asia Executive Committee Meeting come January 19, 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

First, the racist remarks.

This happened during my first appearance at the FIBA Youth Commission meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in November 2007. There, I was verbally abused in front of many foreign dignitaries and members of the FIBA Youth Commission.

Secondly, my dismissal from the FIBA Youth Commission in May 2008 without due process!

I was dismissed as a member of the FIBA Youth Commission without ever citing the reasons for my ouster. It was a disgusting disrespect of a person's right to know what violations or charges are being hurled at him. It certainly has no place in a civilized society. This does not speak well of Baumann, who ironically claims to be a lawyer. The right to due process is sacred.

Now, may I know what FIBA Asia intends to do with my complaints? Will we just allow Patrick Baumann to bully us Asians in case we do not agree with his dictatorial policies? Or do we fight for what is right and truthful? And the humiliating attacks against Asians, do we just keep quiet and cover our faces because of our personal interests? Or do we resist racism within the FIBA organization and declare ourselves equal to people of any race?

Today, I ask you all, where does FIBA Asia stand in all of my accusations against Baumann?

I condemn, in the strongest terms, FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann's boorish behavior and unfair treatment of the undersigned, an Asian. To belittle Asians, as the despotic Baumann has done, is truly unacceptable.

Furthermore, to put on record, I am protesting the way FIBA has treated the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), a member in good standing with the FIBA since 1936 which was unceremoniously kicked out of the organization a few years ago because of Baumann's machinations and undue interference in our local basketball organization.

The Bangkok Agreement that was signed on February 4, 2007 should be respected because the agreement called for the merger as a national basketball federation in the Philippines to be known as BAP-SBP, and not SBP, a diversionary tactic that is being perpetuated by SBP's Manuel Pangilinan and its cohorts.

Even Baumann was a signatory to the Bangkok Agreement. But now he disowns it to suit his needs. Interfering with what is an internal matter. Mr. Baumann shamelessly is siding with Mr. Pangilinan's group for his own financial interests. FIBA Asia was also signatories.

Kindly be informed that the truly elected officials of the BAP-SBP are Honorable Congressman Luis R. Villafuerte and Honorable Prospero A. Pichay Jr. as BAP-SBP Chairman and BAP-SBP President, respectively; and Mr. Christian D. Tan is elected as the BAP-SBP Executive Director.

It's NOT those personages who were named in a bogus election, such as the moneyed Mr. Manuel Pangilinan and disgraced Mr. Emmanuel Eala. Mr. Eala is a disbarred lawyer whom our Supreme Court has ruled as guilty of immorality and whom our professional league-PBA, even kicked out as its commissioner. Now, Pangilinan is conspiring with Eala to destroy the BAP.

We should never tolerate the misdeeds of Baumann for this may later affect the honor and respect of the FIBA itself. If this happens, it will be a disgrace to the entire international sporting community.

Please help guide us. We are seeking for what is fair, truthful and just, not only for me and the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) but also for Asians in general. In God's will, the truth shall prevail and only the truth shall set us free.

Respectfully yours,

GRAHAM C. LIM
Secretary General
Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP)

cc.  FIBA Asia Members

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Letter to FIBA' Patrick Baumann and FIBA Asia Executive Committee

Demise of Philippine Basketball

Official Complaint and Sanction against Patrick Baumann

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