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| Donnie Geisler got the boot from the PTA. |
MANILA--The rift between the Philippine Taekwondo Association and arguably the best Filipino jin ever just reached boiling point.
The PTA kicked out former Olympian Donnie Geisler from the governing body on Monday as both parties are involved in a legal battle.
"This is to inform you... that Mr. Donald David Geisler III [is] expelled from the Philippine Taekwondo Association and that all rights and privileges granted to him as a PTA member be deemed forfeited and terminated," Manolo Gabriel, PTA's sanction committee chairman, said in a notice given to Geisler, a copy of which was posted in the organization's Facebook page.
Worse, the PTA declared the three-time Southeast Asian Games champion persona non grata.
The sanctions were approved by PTA president Robert Aventajado.
The row between Geisler and PTA stemmed from a series of webinars Geisler was putting up amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in which he was holding online taekwondo training.
The problem began when Geisler invited Samuel Morrison and Arven Alcantara to join his online training on June 6.
Morrison and Alcantara were reprimanded by PTA for joining Geisler's webinar series, which according to the organization was not given approval.
In the publicized notice, the PTA said that Morrison and Alcantara's appearances were supposedly only limited to motivational speeches but Geisler made them conduct drills for the students too.
The row simmered further when the PTA barred its current star, Pauline Lopez, from participating in Geisler's online training, leading to the latter hitting out the organization for its "dirty tactics" of bringing down his passion project.
The drama further escalated when on June 24, Geisler filed a complaint against PTA at the Philippine Competition Commission.
Then on July 6, Geisler sued PTA secretary general Rocky Samson for libel and cyberlibel.
Geisler said that his problems with the PTA has been existent since 2014.
Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno_
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