Monday, January 21, 2008

Estimo: Pichay Camp Toyed with Law

It looks like my last post was a little too soon! Fresh in my inbox is a press release from Sammy Estimo, the man who filed a petition for a "temporary restraining order" (TRO) to stop his NCFP rivals, led by Prospero Pichay, from holding their elections on 19 January. This press release is addressed to various RP media and including this blog. It's rather lengthy, with a carefully bulleted list of statements and rebuttals. Here are some tidbits:

NCFP executive director lawyer Sammy Estimo said that the NCFP 8-man majority group which includes NCFP chair Congressman Man Defensor and Gov. Rocky Molintas, will file contempt charges against NCFP President Prospero Pichay, Mayor Abraham Tolentino and their five (5) co-respondents before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for violating the TRO issued on January 16, 2008.

“NCFP President Prospero Pichay Jr., Mayor Abraham Tolentino and their co-respondents in the TRO case toyed with the rule of law. What they could not do directly, they did it indirectly. Their lawyers appeared in the TRO proceedings and when they lost and Quezon City Judge Reynaldo Daway issued the TRO, they brazenly defied it and toyed with the TRO,” Estimo said.

It is not true that the NCFP does not have a Constitution and By-laws. We have in our possession the original copies of the NCFP Articles of Incorporation (S.E.C. Reg. No.A2 00012818, October 16,2000) and the By-laws. We even submitted them to the court as documentary proofs that the Constitution and By-laws are registered with SEC contrary to the claim of Pichay and Mayor Tolentino,” Estimo said.
And:
Even Mr. Florencio Campomanes, who attended the electoral process, knows about the existence of the NCFP Constitution and By-laws and their SEC regulations because it was he, GM Eugene Torre and I who jointly prepared and helped each other to give juridical and legal personality to NCFP,” Estimo explained.
The press release ends with:
The unlawful Tagaytay NCFP polls disenfranchised hundreds of voting chess clubs nationwide. I understand only thirty six (36) clubs participated and certainly, this number does not represent the majority of chess voters in this country,” Estimo concluded.
It's a sort of yin and yang for RP chess. After outstanding news last week of Paragua's triumph in the "B" section of the 1st Leg ASEAN Circuit event and Gonzales' final GM norm, now we have this: a step forward, then several steps back! We'll be closely watching developments from here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sammy. Enough already. Give your full support to the Pichay leadership.

You ain't gonna win regardless.

Tell you what, we will give you the title of Honorary PCFP President. How's that. Like that?

Thanks for the updates TCG.

Anonymous said...

It's very clear why the Philippines is too far behind in chess compared to countries like China, India, Vietnam, Iran and probably even Singapore and Indonesia in the future. The chess leadership is in a mess. How in the world can we compete with other countries in our region if our chess leaders are destroying each other? If this happens maybe Mark Paragua while competing in the U.S. should stay there for good like Angelo Young and Enrico Sevillano. Wesley So should follow in the future. Julio Catalino Sadorra should follow what Enrique
Pacencia did and become one of the leading players of Singapore. Torre is old and about to retire.

Goodbye Philippines. These chess leaders deserve it if migration of chess players happens.

Anonymous said...

In 2000 we can recall that a possible TRO was also used by the PCF in trying to stop the Philippine Olympiad team (GM Eugene Torre's group that included GMs Antonio, Villamayor, IMs Bancod, Nadera and Datu with Atty. Sammy Estimo as NCFP lawyer) to leave for Istanbul Olympiad.
During this time, big people like Campomanes, Abundo, Go Teng Kok supported Torre's group which represented NCFP (newly formed federation/gov't recognised by FIDE, even the FIDE prexy Kirsan Ilyumshinov visited the Philippines to acknowledge NCFP).

While PCF at that time was prexy (the late) Congressman & Atty. Art Borjal, Jesus Ingeniero of DILG and many more big shots

Power struggle here and there by the big people and eventually in the 2000 FIDE Congress in Istanbul NCFP was recognised and PCF was taken down...we can see this as EDSA 1? ...haha

While now a NCFP election with almost the same big people on two different sides...haha
EDSA 2?...haha

Always a change, hoping for the better.

But it seems Pichay's plans are working...

Like Philippine politics, chess is similar...

Anonymous said...

it all boils down to money. sammy and his cohorts will lose a lot of moolah, hahaha, including the 20% cut on every sponsorship they get for chessplayers campaigning abroad.

the love of money is the root of all evil.

Anonymous said...

Good news I read today in Philippine Star: Congressman Mat Defensor supports Pichay. This is great news for Philippine Chess. I hope the others on the opposite side would follow for the sake of this game we love. I myself have seen the huge development in Philippine chess under the leadership of Pichay. I dont take sides. All I want is, enough bickering and let us all work together for the good of Philippine chess.

Thank you Mr. Closet Grandmaster. I always visit your site.