By Rey Danseco
The question on who are the culprits in a recent string of switching or fraudulently using names of fighters in Southeast Asia got an answer yesterday.
This writer found out that the Filipino boxer fought who under the name Tata Polinar, was unlicensed and retired fighter Joel Avila, a street taho (yogurt) vendor. Veteran trainer Pablo Leonardo, 54, accompanied him in his illegal campaign.
Avila, 29, a former Philippine super-flyweight champ, is shown on a video tape provided by Japanese boxing impresario Joe Koizumi to the Philippine Games and Amusement Board (GAB), fighting WBC Asian Boxing Council (ABCO) super-flyweight king Medgoen Singsurat (41-3, 28 KOs) in Saraburi Province, Thailand last May 27.
Avila, who never renewed his boxing license in the past three years, was in no condition to fight when he failed to make the weight limit. On the night of the scheduled 12-round title bout, he was decked with a left hook and remained on the canvas even after the referee counted him out at 1:27 of the 5th round.
According to a report in Thailand, Avila (26-14-3, 13 KOs) posed as Tata Polinar, whose real name is Romeo Balaba Polinar, when he showed a passport bearing Polinar’s name with his photograph before the Thai officials upon his arrival in Bangkok, Thailand.
The other allegedly unscrupulous Thai matchmaker, Panya Prachakorn, admitted to the Thai press that he made a deal with Filipino friend and trainer, Benny dela Peña, to match Singsurat against the real Tata Polinar, a Davao native (in Southern Philippines) but is fighting out of Yolly Alfante Stable in Pasay City, Manila.
Leonardo and Dela Peña, both GAB licensed trainers, are both under the auspices of alias Bong Obero, an unlicensed boxing handler who allegedly is the mastermind of sending undocumented Filipino boxers in Thailand and elsewhere in Asia for many years, particularly to shows of Thai promoter Virat Vachararattanawong.
Theodore Pascual, head supervisor of the Philippine Bureau of Immigration at Centennial Terminal 2 in Manila, confirmed that Avila and Leonardo boarded a flight PR 730 of the Philippine Airlines to Bangkok last May 24.
GAB boxing division chief Emmanuel Flores also revealed in separate exclusive interview yesterday that they will summon Leonardo, as soon as possible to give him a chance to defend himself and reveal the real participation of Dela Peña and the alias Obero in the process.
Leonardo will face at least a year suspension if proven guilty while the Philippine authorities plan to release an advisory to the Oriental and Pacific boxing community not to deal with unlicensed handlers of Filipino boxers like Obero, unlicensed matchmakers as well as unlicensed boxers.
