I would have preferred to leave the subject out of this column lest I be accused of taking advantage. But I have been pressed no end by friends around the world to clarify the situation, so I shall present the issues here as objectively as possible.
At the root of this controversy is a difference of visions. Beyond the personalities and organizations, beyond the envy and resentment, the two sides have different views of what Filipino pool should be, where it should go and what promoters should be doing.
On one side, there is the Billiards & Snooker Congress of the Philippines (BSCP) and its partner organizations all over the country. The BSCP is the national sports association for billiards and the governing body of the sport. It comprises the many stakeholders of the Philippine pool community such as players, promoters, managers, referees and coaches, billiards clubs, billiards manufacturers and distributors, pool hall owners, pool sponsors and fans. The association partners with various organizations in the staging of tournaments and the implementation of its development projects. Two of its key partners are: Raya Sports in the staging of tournaments like the World Pool Championship, and Star Billiards in the provision of quality billiards equipment for tournaments and general pool development.
In the view of BSCP and its partners, pool is essentially an individual sport like tennis and golf. Pool excellence is tested with the individual player competing for honor and glory -- alone. Others may help in honing talent and readying it for competition, but in the end the player must compete alone. In this way, pool is essentially different from basketball, baseball and football, which are all team sports. In this other sports genre, athletes compete as teams and they win honors together.
With this vision of pool as an individual sport, we in the BSCP partnership have created a wide-ranging program for the development and training of players, the organization of tournaments at different age and skill levels, the organization of clubs, the cultivation of sponsors, and the creation of a fan base for our sport. We have joined together in bringing the World Pool Championship to the Philippines, and soon the World Ten Ball Championship. We have endeavored to put pool on television. And we have strengthened our links with the international pool community by joining our efforts with the program of the World Pool-Billiard Association and other groups.
On the other side, there is the Billiards Managers and Players Association of the Philippines (BMPAP). It began as just a managers association last December, and then mutated to include the players they manage. It started by trying to wrest "national governing body" status from the BSCP. When that proved impossible, it shifted toward breaking away from the BSCP altogether and questioning the tournaments that it supports and sanctions, including the national and international tournaments.
The BMPAP is pushing for the segregation of pool in the Philippines between professionals and amateurs. It aspires to be the voice of professional pool in the country. It wants to displace the BSCP in the selection of Filipino players for international competition -- a case of wishful thinking because the BSCP is the Philippine member of the WPA system. More fundamentally, the BMPAP seeks to establish a commercial pool team league in the Philippines, similar to the NBA. Its leaders hope to create pool teams sponsored by companies, such as what we now have in the Philippine Basketball Association. Each team is to be composed of professional players, who will receive salaries and contracts like basketball players. The teams will then contend for honors in a year-round conference.
One can see why this scheme might be appealing to players, especially to those who are aging and past their best years. Instead of having to win tough tournaments in order to earn their living, they will be holding jobs and getting a regular paycheck.
Finally, the pool team league lends itself to gambling, and the many possibilities and dangers that it brings. But this is an issue for another time.
We at BSCP couldn't care less about what the BMPAP wants to do or what kind of pool it wants to pursue. They are free to do their thing, while we are free to do our thing. But the new organization is pursuing its agenda at the expense of ours. It has come to realize that team pool cannot flourish unless we in BSCP and Raya tune down our act. Last year, when the idea was first pushed, the idea simply wouldn't fly. Now, their leaders' tack is to claim professional pool as the BMPAP's special province. They are using the players as their battering ram while they hide behind the barricades.
As a lifelong devotee of pool, I see this quarrel here in the Philippines as going beyond politics or business. This is a fundamental difference of vision. I believe that pool is essentially an individual sport that is best played by individuals in competition. Occasionally, of course, you can tinker with the format by having players play in pairs or as teams, but these are novelties good for a laugh not for serious pool. They fly against the essential character of pool as a sport that measures and tests individual excellence. You cannot celebrate pool greatness with teams competing. You cannot see brilliance in a forest of teams.
Why are some top Filipino players interested in the pool team league idea? Sadly, it is because they know how tough it is now to win in individual competition here and abroad. They know how much the world has caught up with Filipino pool, and how new talent in Europe, Asia and America are shaking the house of international pool. A well-paid job in a pool team would be a nice ride to the sunset.
But the great majority of Filipino players have refused to endorse the BMPAP agenda. Marlon Manalo has rejected it outright. Two players – Antonio Gabica (Asian Games gold medalist) and Jeffrey de Luna (Manny Pacquiao International Open champion) – have broken away from Bugsy Promotions. Dennis Orcullo has declared that he will play in BSCP-Raya events, despite being tied down by a Bugsy contract. He calls team pool "Kengkoy billiards" (referring to a cartoon character here). Renemar David, Pool Showdown champion, has left Edwin Reyes, BMPAP spokesman. Mark Anthony Mendoza, national junior champion, has left the group of Jonathan Sy. The list is long.
The important point is this: there are over five million pool players in the Philippines, according to a Social Weather Stations 2006 survey. Of these, well over a thousand of them are professional both in ability and dependence on the sport for their living. All dream of becoming a world champion some day.
The BMPAP agenda serves only the wishes of a handful of players and their managers. Its architects couldn't care less about holding the world pool championship in the Philippines, or even national championship tournaments. Their vision is insular. When offered the chance to organize the WPC, they scoffed at the idea. They will just do their own thing. If the world's best would be invited at all, it would be to join again the small invitational tournaments that one promoter here used to specialize in before Raya Sports came around.
Filipino pool, it seems, must go through the fire before it can truly cement its place in the frontlines of international pool. "So be it," say my colleagues in the BSCP community. "Let us face this challenge , if we must. But let no one doubt that we will prevail."
The confidence stems not from anger or braggadocio. It comes from the conviction that what we stand for is how and what pool should be. Team pool is a cartoon of our sport. Filipino pool achieved global prominence from the feats of individual players, never from a team. Should it ever happen that we will be watching our cue artists doing their stuff as teams, that would be the end of pool in the Philippines.
