Police help now sought by Fernandez
IF things went according to plan, Peping Cojuangco would now be facing a libel case slapped him by Ramon Fernandez.
During the PSA (Philippine Sportswriters Association) Forum on Tuesday, Fernandez, through his lawyer Ramsey Quijano, said he would sue Cojuangco on Friday (yesterday) in the Cebu Prosecutor’s Office in Cebu City.
That is, if Cojuangco did not accede to Fernandez’s three demands “to retract, apologize and resign as president of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).”
The would-be case arose when Cojuangco accused Fernandez of “game fixing” when Fernandez was still playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) from the 70’s to the 80’s.
Cojuangco, who recently won a fourth four-year term as POC president, hurled the raps while he was also a guest at the same Forum weeks ago.
“Me a game fixer?” said Fernandez. “Of course, not. But I am a team fixer because I have made my teams champion many times over.”
In sporting parlance, a game fixer is one who waylays his team into losing a game usually for a fee offered by a syndicate manipulating results of games.
In contrast, a team fixer is one who helps his team win games, if not championships. In his nearly two decades as a PBA player, Fernandez had won 19 titles.
Cojuangco, 82, called Fernandez, 63, a game fixer apparently in anger after the league’s first four-time MVP exposed financial anomalies allegedly committed by the POC president, who started his first term in 2005.
Cojuangco got reelected when his wouldbe opponent, boxing chief Ricky Vargas, was disqualified by a dubious rule that was crazily crafted obviously to make Cojuangco foefree.
Amid the verbal clashes, Fernandez also said at the PSA Forum that he was asking for police protection from Philippine National Police Chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
“Actually, I was advised by the [PSC] Chairman (Butch Ramirez) himself to seek help for my own security and safety,” Fernandez said.
Aside from the libel case, Fernandez, one of four PSC Commissioners, is also busy exposing on social media alleged irregularities in the PSC under former Chair Richie Garcia.
These are interesting times, indeed.