Controversy Mars the PBaRS Tournament

By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Las Vegas, Nevada

Posted June 5, 2011

The badminton tournament went on smoothly as usual after three days of competition which was suddenly marred with controversy when one of the players was found to be overaged in the bracket she entered with in the ongoing MVP Sports Foundation - Bingo Bonanza Philippine Badminton Ranking System (PBaRS) tournament at the Pohang Badminton Courts here Friday.

Dianne Ocampo, who played in tandem with Carlo Lopez of Whacker’s Badminton Club against local bets of Sarah Sabino and Esmael Reinoso, was found to be overaged in the mixed doubles Under-15 bracket which they won 21-10, 21-10.

The technical committee composed of PBaRS tournament director Nelson Asuncion, Teody Villaflor, Alma Ledesma, Ronald Capili and Maynard Pasakdal decided to disqualify Ocampo in all of her remaining matches and would affect her partners in the succeeding matches.

“We will not allow this to happen here,” Asuncion disclosed in an interview.

They will recommend to PBaRS whatever sanction they will impose to Ocampo, or her coach if found to have knowledge of the controversy as the PBaRS tournament that is sanctioned by Philippine Badminton Association (PBA) will make the same recommendation to the association, the technical committee said.

The controversy popped out when some players recognized Ocampo to be overaged in the U-15 bracket. She was playing under birth date cutoff of 1997. Ocampo was found to have been born on November 26, 1996.

Upon knowing Ocampo is overaged in the Under-15, Sabino’s group filed protest to the organizer just as the first set was about to start. They were able to secure a copy of Department of Education record of Ocampo to substantiate their claim.

The technical committee, however, could not alter the outcome of the match and claimed Sabino could not be awarded for a next step as her match and that of
her pair is considered a loss.

Sabino’s group is appealing to reconsider the outcome for ranking.

Whacker’s head coach Raul De Vera denied having hands in the alteration of date of birth of Ocampo and said he will look into the documents of Ocampo that was passed in the 2nd leg here by their club in Manila.

Sabino’s group claimed the match in the mixed doubles where Ocampo was entered may be rightly stopped if a certain “Jay,” a match announcer, had referred the complaint to Villaflor.

“Jay” was found out to be connected with the Whacker’s Badminton Club, reports disclosed.


Hazel's Comments:

In the game of badminton and in life, integrity and honesty should be valued more than winning...

I got this article from an online newspaper of Las Vegas, USA. Tsk, tsk, tsk... "hanggang doon umabot ang balita. Kakahiya!" (Translated: The news even reached Las Vegas, USA. What a shame!)