BLATCHE NEEDS TO ATTEST TO DESIRE TO REPRESENT THE PHILIPPINES FOR NATURALIZATION
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 05 Mar 2014
Blatche.
In a very informative hearing of the Justice Committee of the House of Representatives chaired by Congressman Neil Tupas, it was agreed that the only document needed from NBA player Andray Blatche to become a naturalized Philippine citizen and fulfill his stated desire to represent the country in the World Cup in Spain in late August, is for Blatche to attest to his desire to play for the Philippines and to obtain Philippine citizenship.
The House Committee suggested that Blanche fulfill this requirement before the plenary session on March 14 so he could suit up for the Gilas Pilipinas team which will be seeing action for the first time in 40 years in the coveted World Cup in Spain.
Significantly, Blatche earned the praises of coach Jason Kidd after Monday?s victory over the Chicago Bulls.
In sponsoring the House Bill that would grant Blatche, an outstanding player in the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA, Deputy Speaker Robbie Puno said ?The governing body of international basketball competitions, the International Basketball Federation or FIBA, defines a national basketball team as being composed of 11 natural-born citizens and one who has acquired the nationality of the country he represents by naturalization.?
Puno recalled that in the last FIBA Asia Championships which media often refers to as the eleven glorious days in August., the Philippines beat such squads as Jordan, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Qatar, Kazakhstan, and Korea. All these teams have taken advantage of the FIBA rule allowing one naturalized player to play in the tournament.?
He noted that ?our chances of landing this coveted slot in the FIBA World Cup would have been severely challenged had we not naturalized a player. In the absence of our naturalized player, Marcus Douthit, one would be left to wonder whether the Philippine team would have had a fighting chance against all the other teams which took advantage of the FIBA rule.?
The Deputy Speaker reminded his colleagues that in the FIBA World Cup ?we will again face other teams that all have naturalized athletes playing for them. In the Philippines? bracket, we will be playing against Croatia, Puerto Rico, Senegal and Greece. All these teams have naturalized players.?
Puno pointed out that ?Naturalization is the new paradigm of international basketball. We are ranked 34th and yet we have entered the World Cup as one of the top 24 teams of the world. Let us continue this trend of over-achievement by not squandering the opportunity we have worked so hard to get. Let?s give our all and do all we can to field the strongest team possible within the rules allowed by FIBA.?
Recalling that In the 15th Congress, American basketball player Marcus Douthit was naturalized, Puno remarked, ?We can proudly say that this single, yet concrete, contribution of Congress made possible what was deemed futile several years ago. Mr. Douthit is here. I can cite him as an exemplary Filipino citizen given what he has done for our national team. Mr. Douthit is no absentee Filipino. He lives here. His children go to school here. We can undoubtedly say that his naturalization is an unqualified success.?
The sponsor of the House Bill said ?Congress has now been offered another auspicious opportunity to contribute to the success of the Philippine national basketball team in the global arena. Naturalizing Andray Blatche will ensure that we don?t imperil the entire basketball program in the event of an injury to either him or Douthit. This will also promote effective team development as the two athletes could practice against each other and serve as backup players to the other.
"Mr. Chairman, several of our fellow lawmakers have signed on as co-authors of House Bill 3783 and I would like to mention two of them because they are both members of the 16th Congress and they are both basketball stakeholders who have made contributions to Gilas Pilipinas. One of them is Pampanga Representative Yeng Guiao, a former head coach of the Philippine national basketball team and now the head coach of the PBA team Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. He was also once a commissioner of the Philippine Basketball League and holds the distinction of winning four PBA titles since starting his coaching career in the early 1990s.
"Four of his star players in Rain or Shine are part of the 16-man world pool?Jeff Chan, Gabe Norwood, Paul Lee and Beau Belga."
Puno cited another co-author, Tarlac Representative Henry Cojuangco ?from the illustrious Cojuangco clan, which has three teams playing in the PBA?San Mig Coffee Mixers, Ginebra San Miguel and the San Miguel Beermen. The players of these powerhouse teams are also included in the world pool?Japeth Aguilar, L.A. Tenorio, Marc Pingris, Greg Slaughter, Junmar Fajardo and Marcio Lassiter.?
In the Senate, the chairman of the Committee on Games, Amusement and Sports ? Senator Sonny Angara ? has already filed a counterpart measure, Senate Bill 2108, seeking to naturalize Blatche even as Puno called on ?the rest of my distinguished colleagues to likewise throw their full support behind this measure.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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