THE president of the Chooks-to-Go on Monday hit out at the Games and Amusement Board's decision to suspend the Mindanao leg of the Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup in the aftermath of a controversial game in the Visayan tournament that raised suspicions of game-fixing.
Acting on the findings of the GAB, VisMin Cup organizers banned the Siquijor team for life and meted suspensions and penalties on a number of Lapu Lapu players after a game last April 14 at the Visayas bubble in Alcantara, Cebu that saw players brick free throws and blow open layups.
On Sunday, the GAB announced that it was suspending the Mindanao leg of the newly minted professional league while allowing the Visayas tournament to continue under 'close monitoring.'
Ronald Mascarinas, president of the league's title sponsor Chooks-to-Go, was obviously not happy with the decision which he said "is not just simply going overboard; it is going berserk."
"If wrongful acts committed in a single match in Cebu, and not by any means attributable to all the teams playing in the Visayas leg, did not stop the games there, by what contorted stretch of logic or the imagination did it justify the wholesale suspension of the games in Mindanao?" Mascarinas said in a statement released to media outlets.
While he lauded the GAB for its swift action after the match between the Mystics and the Heroes, Mascarinas said the GAB didn’t state any justification as to why the Mindanao leg was suspended when the Visayas leg where the controversial match happened was allowed to continue 'under observation.'
The Chooks-to-Go chief said GAB’s investigation should have been completed first before coming up with a decision on the Mindanao leg.
“Its decision to suspend the entire Mindanao leg pending ‘further observation of the ongoing games in Visayas,’ as reported by the media, is not just simply going overboard; it is going berserk,” said Mascarinas.
“The Mindanao leg, composed of different sets of management teams and players, and different sets of games, has not even started yet. The only way to justify such draconian, better-safe-than-sorry preemptive action, is to suspect the entire Mindanao leg of serious copycat tendencies, or worst, possible agreement to commit the same April 14 infamy,” Mascarinas said.
Participating teams in the Mindanao leg originally set to unfold next month are Basilan, Cagayan De Oro, Zamboanga, Pagadian, Roxas, Sindagan, Tawi-Tawi, Valencia City, and Ozamiz.
At the end of a long statement, Mascarinas asked the GAB to reconsider its decision, saying basketball "cannot be served by curing a wrong with another wrong, especially when it is a bigger wrong."
"Let us hope GAB reconsiders its decision," Mascarinas said.
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