This chess stalemate

Sportswriter-on-leave Moses Billacura emailed me last weekend from wherever he is across the globe. Actually, it was a forwarded email from Mr. Ronnie Tabudlong of Blue Knight Chess Club of Davao.
The email contained clarifications from the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) particularly Grandmaster Jayson Gonzales, the NCFP Executive Director. The NCFP is the national sports association governing the affairs of chess in the Philippines. It is currently under its President former Surigao governor Prospero Pichay.
Here’s the content of the attached email of Mr. Gonzales purportedly addressed to Mr. Tabudlong:
To: Ronnie Tabudlong
This is to clarify the details of the Mindanao Leg of Batang Pinoy chess tournament on November 7-10,, 2012 and the press release in Sun Star on October 11, 2012:
1. The host of Mindanao Leg has been transferred to Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte.
2. The technical guidelines for all sport disciplines is that “The tournament is open to all Filipino players (boys and girls) aged 15 years old and below, duly certified by their respective LGU’s.
3. The format of the chess tournament in the Mindanao Leg of Batang Pinoy is Open – 15 years old and below in both categories (Boys and Girls).  
4. The tournament which is being organized by James Infiesto on Oct. 20-21 is not coordinated with NCFP and, therefore, it is not sanctioned by NCFP.
5. James Infiesto is not the recognized NCFP Regional XI coordinator nor NCFP Regional Director as allegedly stated in the press release. There is no position of Regional Director in the organizational chart of NCFP.
For your information and guidance.
Best regards,
GM Jayson Gonzales
NCFP Executive Director
I would like to stress items 4 and 5 of Mr. Gonzales’s email which should be a problem area for sports here in Davao. I have heard of this conflict in the past and I have seen chess grow despite the differences. But it has never been as disturbing as this that a tournament organized for choosing the city’s representatives to a national competition organized by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) is being disowned by the chess governing body.
For starters let us draw the landscape for this conflict. Mr. James Infiesto, the acting assistant chief of the city sports development office, has said time and again that he is the regional director for NCFP in Davao. He has organized several tournaments—national and local—under the color of that authority.
Mr. Ronnie Tabudlong, meantime, maintains that he is the official NCFP representative for the region. He has also organized chess tournaments under the color and authority of the NCFP.
Tabudlong maintains that he is the NCFP regional representative and that fact was attested to by Mr. Gonzales, the NCFP Executive Director. Infiesto, for his part, maintains he is the Regional Director of NCFP and according to him his appointment comes from Pichay himself and that can only be revoked in writing and by the President himself.
To be fair with Mr. Infiesto, I texted him to ask about the imbroglio and he promised to send me immediately his reply via email. And so I held in abeyance my comments to this issue and waited for Mr. Infiesto’s email. The following day, I received three emails from him.
The first email contained a letter dated October 12, 2012 from Mr. Gonzales calling Mr. Infiesto’s attention to the unsanctioned tournament and asking him to explain within 48 hours why he should not be sanctioned for the improper news announcement and the apparent misrepresentation of NCFP.
Mr. Infiesto wrote Mr. Gonzales a letter as his reply. The letter goes:
Dear GM Gonzales,
 First, I am thankful of your letter dated Oct. 12, 2012 to clarify our press release in Sunstar For our Batang Pinoy Elimination.
 1. Above is the official press release that I sent to all sports editors and writers. The same details were also posted in my wall of my Facebook dated October 7, 2012. If you notice, I never mentioned NCFP. I have no control of the actual release per newspaper. I can also furnish you with the release of Mindanao Daily Mirror dated October 13 and Sunstar SuperBalita dated October 12. You will also notice that their angle and presentation of story are different which are based in my email. The reason I will be conducting a city-wide elimination is to discover new youth talents from in-school and out-of-school and give a chance to all qualified youth players. This upcoming elimination is also in support of the program of PSC which will be facilitated by NCFP. I decided to conduct this tournament after I, being the recognized chess leader in our city, was tasked by our Sports Development Division-City Mayor’s Office, under our City Mayor Sara Duterte, to submit names of qualified youth chess players per age-category. I was informed that our Mayor approved the budget for a maximum of 12 youth chess players to represent our city.
 2. I have an official appointment as NCFP Region XI Director signed by our NCFP President Prospero A. Pichay, Jr. dated May 8, 2006. It clearly states that it cannot be revoked except in writing and my understanding that only the NCFP President has the right to revoked it. Therefore, as of today, I am still the NCFP Region XI Director and had never misrepresented myself.
When you took over as NCFP Executive Director last 2011, I remember that I in our conversation in Tagaytay City during the Asian Zonal Tourney, Me and NM Wilfredo Neri, expressed our full support in your leadership. In return, you recommended and supported our inclusion in RP Youth Team for 2011 ASEAN Age-Group in Tarakan, Indonesia. To which until now we are very grateful. You even discussed to us your plans that we as NCFP Regional directors should be rewarded and be given incentives since we are not receiving any allowance or salary from NCFP and PSC. And, we are spending our own money and are using our own resources in promoting NCFP and chess programs in our regions. You even promised us that all NCFP affiliated events should be coordinated through us if it will be held in our jurisdiction. Also as recognition of my designation as NCFP Region XI Director, you authorized me to organize the PACE-NCA-NCFP Age-Group Mindanao Leg last September 30 to Oct 2, 2011 which was held in NCCC Mall Davao.
Regarding your reminder that I need to coordinate first with NCFP any event or tournament that I will organize, I clearly remember that in our conversation with our President Pichay in his office last 1st week of May 2012, that the tournaments that need clearance from NCFP head office are the following: international, national and open tournaments that involves International Masters and Grand Masters. Hence, our city-wide elimination for 15 years old and below doesn’t need permission from your office.
It is in this connection that I would like to appeal to our honourable president, Prospero A. Pichay, Jr. and your good office as NCFP Executive Director that no disciplinary action should be imposed on me for the reason that up to this point I didn’t receive any document revoking my appointment. And, in fact, I received a text message from our President Pichay dated April 2, 2012 that stated, “Congrats for a job well done”. This referred to my continuous effort in promoting chess in my region. Message such as this from our president inspires me to continue my role as a volunteer partner of NCFP in my region.
I would also declare that I had been a loyal subordinate of our president Pichay since 2006 up to the present. There had been pressures from our local politicians that I should stay away from our President Pichay since he is in “hot seat” in the Aquino government. But, as a loyalist and true gentleman in CHESS who believes in his leadership, I opted to continue to serve NCFP and chess as a whole in my region.
Lastly, I would like to remind you that there was no previous agreement that I will apologize to you to resume working relationship. When i obliged to the request of our President Pichay to settle misunderstanding with you in the 1st week of May 2012, I flew to Manila against the will of my wife since I am still recuperating from stroke. Before we were given the time to talk alone , there was no condition imposed by our President Pichay except that we need to be united and moved on for the sake of NCFP. And in last week of August 2012, with the intervention of GM Eugene Torre, I went again to Manila to meet you and NM Neri, with the intention of showing our sincerity for reconciliation.   It was only you who insisted that I should apologize and defied the order of our president. The reason that I refused to rectify any blogs and articles is because I didn’t write any blogs and articles nor I have knowledge with the blogs and articles written against you in the chess portal or any website as you alleged in our 1st re-conciliatory talk. Also, “Pinoy Chess Addict” is not a website. It is a Facebook chess group where chess players openly post anything, from chess updates to chess issues. If my memory served me write, I only gave my opinion on issues which were not initiated by me and in that discussion I never curse you or call you bad names. If you will ask me today, my opinion will still be the same. That’s how it works. If we accept high positions in any organization, we should be open to criticisms. We may differ in opinions or principles but I hope and pray that we move on and we will be one again in supporting the leadership of our President, Prospero A. Pichay, Jr. for the sake of CHESS!
Sincerely,
James Infiesto
Director
NCFP Region XI
Finally, upon instructions by Mr. Pichay for James, the latter issued this apology on October 17, 2012.
October 17, 2012
GM Jayson Gonzales
Executive Director
National Chess Federation of the Philippines
Dear GM Gonzales,
I would like to extend my apology for whatever i had said or written against you that had hurt your feelings.
I was only giving my personal opinions on chess issues that involve our chess community. But, I never mean to disrespect your position as Executive Director of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).
With this, I am again declaring my full support in your position and to the leadership of NCFP president, Hon. Prospero A. Pichay Jr. And, will follow the rules and regulations and promote our federation to the best of my ability.
FA James Infiesto
I thank James for the clarifications and for being a gentleman in this crazy situation. In the same way, I thank Ronnie for bringing up this matter and standing up for what he strongly believes. Also, my good buddy Moses Billacura for leading me to this issue.
Now that James and Jayson are about to fix their own misunderstanding, I leave it all up now to our good friends James and Ronnie to come up and talk. I can buy you guys a cup of coffee at any of your favourite coffee shops and solve this matter once and for all. For the good of the sport you both love so much—chess.
Let’s stop this stalemate. I tell you, that’s the best move.