PROBE CANCELLED GAME BETWEEN GILAS, NBA STARS Rep. Winston “Winnie” Castelo (Liberal Party, 2nd District of Quezon City) today expressed disgust over the cancellation of the July 22 exhibition game between the Philippine national basketball team Gilas Pilipinas and a group of star players of the US-based National Basketball Association (NBA) and sought an immediate congressional probe “in aid of legislation” on the circumstances surrounding the cancelled game. House Resolution 1293, which Castelo has filed Wednesday, seeks to come out with a remedial legislation that could prevent the recurrence of this incident, where Filipino basketball enthusiasts paid as much as P24,000 a ticket to see a basketball game between the national players and NBA stars. The cancelled basketball game was part of a series of exhibition games before the Gilas Pilipinas team flies to Spain to play and represent Asia in the international basketball tournament under the auspices of Federation of International Basketball Associations (FIBA). Reports said the PLDT Group of Companies, which sponsored the cancelled game, appeared to have been duped by a US-based event organizing group, which promised the conglomerate to bring in the NBA players. Citing press reports, the PLDT, however, was informed by the other party to an agreement hours before the event that the NBA players were barred from playing, citing the existing NBA Players’ Memo informing player agents and players that the NBA does not allow unsanctioned exhibition games for its players, Castelo said. Castelo said Congress has to initiate an inquiry to prevent a repetition even as PLDT chair Manuel Pangilinan said “a refund scheme was being put in motion” because he did not want the public to feel shortchanged.” #
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 05:50:49 +0000