ALL settled!
The staff and crew of the MPBL are breathing easy now, with the financial woes and issues of delayed salaries now a thing of the past, sources bared.
“Sir, bayad na po kami lahat. Salamat naman po. Salamat din kay Senator Manny [Pacquiao] at kina boss Joe Ramos at Commissioner Kenneth (Duremdes),” said one referee who approached SPIN.ph before the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards-Abra Solid North Weavers game on Saturday night.
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The referees salaries that have been delayed for months are finally settled, sources bared. And so are the pay of the broadcast team and the utilities including the bouncers and other league support.
An MPBL official who requested anonymity bared that the delay in the salaries was aused by the league's decision to start the current season earlier than planned.
“Actually dapat May or June ang target namin na start ng season. Kaso suddenly napaaga,” said the MPBL high-ranking official.
“Yung mga sponsors kasi namin especially 1xbet, July pa ang agreed start nila with us. Pero andyan na yan eh. The senator (Pacquiao) would have wanted to settle it from his own pocket pero nasabay din sa election,” he said.
“Kaya pinakiusapan namin ang mga league sponsors na baka pwede mag-adjust na instead of late August or September ang release ng sponsorship pay, kasi nga July ang kontrata, baka early July lang kung pwede na, pumayag naman sila,” he added.
In fact, Pacquiao’s officials delayed their flights to the US for his upcoming comeback fight against Mario Barrios just to make sure the problems are sorted out.
Even Duremdes prolonged his stay in Manila while operations head Emerson Oreta will no longer fly to the US for the Pacquiao-Barrios WBC welterweight championship fight, both need to man the needs of the MPBL.
Meanwhile, MPBL top brass are now in constant communications with erring teams that are remiss with their players’ salaries.
“We’re talking to them, one-by-one, and we said delikado na ang franchises nila if the delay continues. We already solved Cebu and the team now has a new financier in businessman Samson Lato, who was a longtime Cebuano basketball patron,” said the MPBL official.
The league might also implement pruning of the team number and will no longer include those that cannot give salaries to players and staff on time.
“We’re regulating the teams hindi pwedeng laging ganito,” he said. “Kawawa ang mga players, mga personnel and the league in general.”
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