DONALD GEISLER’S fight against the very association that once painted him as one of the country’s bright prospects for even an Olympic gold medal has gone beyond the Philippine Taekwondo Association’s (PTA) spacious gym at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.
The PTA declared Geisler persona non grata for his breach of the national sports association’s (NSA) bylaws only days ago, stripping the former 1998 World Cup and Bangkok Asian Games silver medalist all the rights of a jin—including coaching and maintaining a school.
Geisler said that even before the PTA officially expelled him, he already filed last June 24 a complaint with the Philippine Competition Commission for “various discriminatory and anti-competitive practices” against NSA.
“I also filed criminal complaints for libel and cyber libel for various defamatory statements made against me,” Geisler said.
“I tried my best to spare others in this battle. However, because of false statements and for twisting facts, I am now constrained to deal with all those who allowed themselves to be used as instruments of oppression [against me],” he added.
A three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, Geisler said PTA’s decision to strip him of his rights and affiliation with NSA impacted his being an accredited taekwondo Instructor and coach.
“The decision from the association was instantly posted in its Facebook page with a ‘Notice to the Public’ statement, saying that I was already expelled from the association as an accredited instructor,” he said. “That now prevents me from conducting and continuing my business in teaching the sport that I love. From the looks of it, these are all baseless and intended to create leverage against me.”
After donning the national colors for a decade, Geisler established his taekwondo training center in Greenhills, San Juan, in 2016. He was also one of the national coaches for taekwondo and was a consultant for the national kickboxing team in the 30th Southeast Asian Games last December.
The PTA said that Geisler violated association rules by operating an online taekwondo school under his name and invited former and present national team members to provide inspirational talk to his students without prior permission from the association.