The
PDC Betfair World Cup of Darts is over and England successfully
defended the World Cup of Darts. But the withdrawal of Team Philippines
invited players, Christian Perez and Lourence Ilagan, continues
to generate insinuations, innuendos, controversy, and disbelief
from the fertile minds of our kababayans.
It all started with the announcement from PDC:
“ The Philippines team have withdrawn from the Betfair
World Cup of Darts ….. The pair of Lourence Ilagan and Christian
Perez have pulled out of the three-day £150,00 event due to
travel problems”.
Immediate reaction ranges from dart politics to lack of sponsorship,
but has anyone really looked into the real facts of the case?
Being the dart patron of Christian Perez, I am privy to what
really happened and these are the facts of the case:
January 16, 2013, I got a text from Jojo Claudio stating that
an invitation was extended to Christian Perez and Lourence Ilagan
to represent the Philippines in the World Cup of Darts scheduled
for February 1-3, 2013 in Germany. I also got an email from Jojo
regarding this invitation. Jojo Claudio is the PDC liaison of
the PDC activities in the Philippines.
I replied to Jojo that I will forward the email to Ian Perez
for his information, preparation, availability, and conformity.
I also checked if the procedures and time line for visa processing
in the German Embassy is still the same as last year when Ian
and Lourence represented the Philippine to the World Cup in Frankfurt,
Germany. The time line for visa processing remains the same.
There are 14 calendar days and 10 working days remaining until
the start of the World Cup. It will take a couple of days to prepare
the needed documentation such as the bank statements, my notarized
sponsorship of all his expenses, forwarding of his pictures, preparation
for his travel plans to Manila, etc. The appointment for interview
will take 4 to 7 working days and the approval and release of
the visa will take anywhere from 4 to 10 working days. The embassy
staff will not guarantee any specific date of visa release. Even
though there was “enough time” last year, the visas
were released the day before departure.
With the uncertainty of being granted a visa, it is a prudent
and sensible decision to decline the invitation in order for another
team to take the place of the Philippine Team. It would be totally
unfair to the organizers to accept the invitation and suddenly
not show up due to visa concerns and to deprive another team the
chance to play.
I informed Jojo Claudio that it is impossible for Christian Perez
to get the visa on time with only two (2) weeks remaining before
the start of the World Cup. Jojo replied that the invitation was
sent by PDC on January 10, 2013, but he was in India at that time
and only saw the invitation upon his return.
I hope this puts to rest the lingering unfounded conspiracy theories
on what actually happened. If questions persist and blame has
to be made, I take full responsibility for the decision of Ian
Perez.