PTA exec ready to face Geisler in court

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ROCKY Samson is ready to face in court Sydney Olympic Games veteran Donnie Geisler, who filed a case of libel and cyber libel against the Philippine Taekwondo Association secretary general before the Paranaque last Monday.

“Okay lang, no problem. I can stand for what I said because that’s really what happened,” Samson said yesterday. “Sinabi ko lang naman kung ano ang nangyari. So if they say that’s libel, well, file it. I am willing to defend it.”

The case stemmed from news reports (not in Malaya-Business Insight) quoting Samson that national athletes Samuel Morrison and Arven Alcantara were misled by Geisler, who runs a taekwondo academy, in appearing in his webinar last June 6 without the PTA’s consent.

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Samson reiterated that this violated the association’s protocols in the public appearances of its national athletes, a fact that national coach Dindo Simpao corroborated when he denied that he had allowed Alcantara and Morrison to appear in the online session conducted by Geisler.

Driven by remorse, Morrison, a three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, and Alcantara, who bagged a silver medal in the last 30th SEA Games, submitted their courtesy resignations together with Simpao, who cited “command responsibility” for the decision.

PTA vice president and chief operating officer Hong Sung Chon pardoned both Alcantara and Morrison, who are both Olympic hopefuls, and Simpao in a letter sent to them last June 18.

Aware of the fate of her national teammates and the PTA’s rules, Pauline Louise Lopez, another Olympic aspirant and 30th SEA Games gold medalist, declined Geisler’s invitation in a succeeding online training session.

In the former national athlete’s complaint, he cited Samson’s quotes in a newspaper article that “the two (Morrison and Alcantara) said that they would only do a meet-and-greet and not a seminar and that there would be no money involved.

“I was furious with Mr. Samson because he lied and twisted the facts,” Geisler, the older brother of movie and TV villain Baron Geisler, said in his complaint.

Samson, also a former national team member who copped a silver medal in the 1991 Asian championships in Taiwan, expressed sadness over the actions of his younger colleague, adding that the latter was given a letter by the PTA so he can explain his side.

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