By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The possibility of a compromise loomed as third parties attempted to work out an agreement between Solar Sports and ABS-CBN over Filipino boxing hero and national treasure Manny Pacquiao’s decision to return to the giant broadcast network beginning with the telecast of his showdown with Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton in Las Vegas on May 3.
Solar Sports president Wilson Tseng and COO Peter Chanliong took a flight to Los Angeles Friday to hold discussions with Pacquiao which Vice president for Marketing Jude Turcuarto claimed " was at the request of Manny."
At a luncheon news conference Turcuarto said "we have no intention really of going way against what Manny wants. We wanted to follow what the contract stated and wanted to adhere to the rights that Solar has. The feeling is lets talk. There is no malice, no nothing."
One of the panel of four lawyers at the news conference Atty. Stephen David said " a lot of our friends volunteered to broker a negotiation with Manny Pacquiao and this talk between Wilson Tseng and Pacquiao came about because of these people who are trying to broker a peaceful resolution of this controversy."
Pacquiao himself in an interview with Dyan Castillejo of ABS-CBN said "there is a solution to every problem. I am standing by my decision and I hope the public understands" even as he asked for their support in his upcoming showdown with Hatton.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports on Thursday he was confident that the issue will be resolved but that if Solar which claims it has a valid and binding contract and has not defaulted on its financial obligations to Pacquiao file a suit in the US he was "not going to give anybody (Solar Sports or ABS-CBN) the signal" and subject himself to liabilities.
However, Atty. Enrique Dela Cruz said "we have no plans right now to file a case in the US" which may in fact provide an opening for ABS-CBN - at the insistence of Pacquiao - to telecast the Hatton fight since Arum said that as far as he is concerned "unless there is litigation I’ll give the signal to whomever he (Pacquiao) requires me to ."
Dela Cruz maintained that the Pacquiao announcement and his attempt to rescind his license agreement with Solar Entertainment was "based on a mis-appreciation of facts. He may have been misled into believing that Solar had committed a breach of his contract."
The lawyer claimed that Solar had "complied with all its obligations under the agreement and there was absolutely no valid grounds to rescind the agreement."
The legal panel also claimed that Solar had to protect the agreements it had reached with advertisers, sponsors as well as GMA 7 with whom it signed a blocktime agreement to telecast the fight on Tuesday which was coincidentally the same day Pacquiao came out with an announcement on his decision to return to ABS-CBN.
Solar also claimed that while technically it still owed Pacquiao 5 percent of gross income for the Oscar De La Hoya fight last October 6 in Las Vegas, he had actually received a bigger amount in terms of advances.
They also claimed that all amounts due Pacquiao including the 25 percent advance for the TV rights for the Hatton fight amounting to P15 million had already been remitted and received by Pacquiao last March 17 although the contract calls for payment ten days after the signing of the contract which Arum revealed was signed on January 24.
It was claimed that the advances had been paid to MP Promotions of Manny Pacquiao and presumably received by Pacquiao. However, we learned a few hours after the news conference that Pacquiao was prepared to request Solar Sports to open their books so he could have competent people check on what was due him and what he was supposed to have received.
The sudden and mysterious disappearance of a paragraph plus the last page of the contract which contained the details of payment schedules and amounts created a minor stir since it appeared to have mysteriously been removed from a copy of the document obtained from Atty. Dela Cruz on Thursday which resulted in the lawyers claiming they had nothing to do with the document distributed at the news conference by personnel of Solar Sports.
The lawyers said the contract between Solar and Pacquiao was very clear on the grounds for termination or recession. They said "there had to be a substantial breach and not a slight or casual breach of contract which will not justify the termination or recession of the contract."
They also pointed out that the other party – in this case Solar – is given a period of at least 30 days to remedy the default so that even if there is a breach of contract if there is no communication regarding the breach there is no valid ground for termination. Besides, it was made clear that there should be fifteen days written notice of termination addressed to the defaulting party.
