Powerade 13's Demand Letter vs. Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc.

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Former Powerade Tigers manager Kenneth Duremdes leads a group of 13 peo-
ple who demands that their working contracts with the Coca-Cola Bottlers Phil-
ippines, who sold the team to GlobalPort, will be honored.

PTV Sports host Snow Badua received a copy of the demand letter made by the so-called "Powerade 13", the group consisting of those who lost their jobs to the sale of the Tigers' franchise to GlobalPort, to the Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc., the former owner of the PBA team. Here's the content of the letter and I quote:

Mr. Ronnie Asuncion

Team Governor

Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines. Inc

Dear Mr. Asuncion,

Last Monday, we, the group of 13 Coca-Cola/Powerade Tigers management, coaches, staff, and former players with issues concerning our existing contracts, met with Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner Chito Salud to clarify a number of points. Of primary importance were the conditions of the sale of the Coca-Cola franchise to Mr. Michael Romero's group, Sultan 900.

Commissioner Salud informed us that traditionally, when a team is bought, it is only the players' contract that are sold and this is also what happened between Coca-Cola and Sultan 900. Without seeing the deed of sale between the two parties involved, we are taking the Commissioner's word for in that other team members' contract (staff, coaches, utilities, and management) are not usually part of the sale.

This, however, is contrary to what you assured us during a team dinner last July 30 in Alabang.

With this declaration of the Commissioner, we can only deduce that Coca-Cola is the one accountable for our live contracts, even though a number of us have been given the runaround on who is truly responsible for the remaining year.

Rather than honor the remaining 12 months, Coca-Cola has offered each of us a take-it-or-leave-it "financial assistance" ranging from one to six months, dependent on the number of years of loyal and dedicated service we gave to the company. Our ballboys, who you first spoke to, felt they had no choice; with their backs to the wall, they accepted your offer.

The 13 of us feel differently.

Additionally, Coca-Cola through you also mentioned to some of us that if we do not accept the said offer, you would see us in court, sounding as if Coca-Cola were the aggrieved party! Going to court is something we would like to avoid since it will be an inconvenience to all concerned, including our group, the Coca-Cola Company, and probably the PBA itself. More so because it is difficult for ordinary people like us to sue a multinational like Coke; we are not naive about tactics that can be used to drag litigation and force poorer litigants to financially bleed to death.

But we are not ruling out this option if we continue to be treated unfairly, as we have so far been treated.

We remember distinctly your words of assurance you gave to the media following your meeting with the Board of Governors last February; the team is not for sale and Coca-Cola intends to stay till we win a championship. These turned out to be false.

We have yet to win a championship--but Coca-Cola sold the team nevertheless.

And we remember distinctly your assurance that all valid live contracts should be honored by the new team owner, failing which an amicable, mutually agreed compromise must be reached. These too turned out to be false, as the "take-it-or-leave-it" offers you made us were not "mutually agreed" compromises but in fact sounded more like threats.

After considering all this hassle that we have been put through, the sleepless nights, the worrying of being left jobless, of how we will provide for our families, we remain willing to settle this matter in an amicable manner. We propose that Coca-Cola do the only honorable thing to do which is to honor our contracts in full; nothing that has transpired since January 30, 2012 has been of our doing or was within our control; in fact, had we only been treated with more respect and far more transparency from the beginning we could have prepared ourselves and our families for the difficulties we are encountering today, reducing the stress and tension and negativity that now pervades our lives because of the way this whole matter has been handled--to be more precise, mishandled--wasting the goodwill which we had for the Company we served loyally.

We see this as a reasonable proposal. We have done our consultations and are confident that the law and public opinion is on our side on the point that Coca-Cola does indeed owe us the full year left.

Hoping to settle this matter amicably, we remain.

Sincerely,

(signed)

Kenneth Duremdes

Rodney Santos

Gerard Francisco

Ronjay Enrile

Dale Singson

Cesar Catli Jr.

Julio Veloso

George Ella

Dr. Pablo Santos

Ma. Criselda Nieto

Lester Pascua

Benigno Espeleta

Rheysonn Cornilla