Sports

IF you base everything on prevailing rules and by-laws, the curious case of the Philippine Volleyball Federation (PVF) is easy to decide. The PVF is the federation recognized by the FIVB, the world governing body of volleyball. In fact, during the 2018 FIVB World Congress held in Cancun, Mexico, the FIVB General Assembly rejected the proposal to expel the PVF from the FIVB.
In the same Congress, the General Assembly also voted against the proposal to affiliate the Larong Volleyball sa Pilipinas, Inc. (LVPI).
The FIVB recognizes only one volleyball federation per country.
Meanwhile, according to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) charter, a sports association shall only be recognized by the POC if it is an affiliate of the world organizing body.
Based on these premises, it is only logical to conclude that the POC recognize PVF as its member association and not the LVPI.
But reality is far from truth. At least in Philippine sports.
That is because the LVPI currently enjoys the status of being the national sports association (NSA) and the PVF, recognized by the FIVB since 1950 but booted out from the POC in 2015, does not.
In a sudden turn of events, the FIVB general director Fabio Azebedo said that PVF remains to be a regular member of the FIVB but “lost all of its rights” except for its affiliation to the world governing body.
Azebedo also said that LVPI is now a provisional member of the FIVB.
PVF president Edgardo Cantada, however, refutes these statements from Azebedo.
“These are mere inappropriate concoctions of some of the members of the FIVB Board of Administrators,” said Cantada.
“This situation has been going on for the past five years. The PVF is a regular member in good standing of the FIVB since 1950 until a tyrant of a president of its Philippine Olympic Committee with a mere letter to the FIVB with false allegations caused its suspension in the FIVB,” Cantada added.
Cantada is now pushing for the reinstatement of the PVF in the POC.
“If POC president Bambol Tolentino is true to his world that he will correct all the wrongdoings of the past POC administration, he will spearhead in bringing out the truth and serve justice to all NSAs that were unceremoniously booted out from the POC,” Cantada said.
The POC is expected to tackle the PVF issue this week.
The PVF, with its own resources, continues to engage in its grassroots development program, conduct referees/coaches clinics and hold age-group volleyball tournaments all over the country.