Indefinite suspension of Mahindra consultant Joe Lipa ‘stays’

Which part is accusatory and condescending? The suspension of Mahindra consultant Joe Lipa stemmed from this letter asking him to appear before PBA Commissioner Chito Narvasa to explain his side on a statement he made to Spin.ph. The former national coach refused to receive the letter. It was instead received by Mahindra team manager Eric Pineda.

PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa kept the indefinite suspension of Mahindra consultant Joe Lipa as they failed to resolve their issue on a short meeting at the PBA office in Libis, Quezon City Monday.

“The suspension stays,” said PBA deputy commissioner Rickie Santos, the only other person in the meeting.

“It didn’t last over five minutes as coach Joe (Lipa) immediately left when he asked ‘am I suspended’ then commissioner Narvasa answered ‘yes,’” Santos also said.

Much of the talk revolved around Narvasa’s first letter to Lipa which the latter found “accusatory and condescending.”

The veteran coach had been summoned to a meeting by Narvasa in relation to statements he issued in reaction to Narvasa’s own statements in a presscon in Dubai.

The letter reads: “This is with regards to statement ascribed to you that appeared on Spin.ph on Nov. 9, 2015.

“In this connection, please appear before the undersigned on Monday, Nov. 16, 2015 at 11 a.m. at the PBA office in Libis, Quezon City.”

“Sabi nga ni Com, di kahon yung letter. Inabutan ko na dito yan sa PBA. Pero binabalikan ni coach na di niya nagustuhan ang tono ng letter,” said Santos.

Narvasa rendered the suspension as Lipa didn’t attend the meeting.

With the new commissioner’s thrust of reaching out to teams and putting premium on better communication within the PBA community, the meeting was supposed to be an opportunity to thresh things out and resolve the issues.

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