PBA commissioner Willie Marcial on Wednesday dismissed claims made by a 'cyber expert' that he hacked into the official league website and rigged the fan voting for the All-Star Game held in Bacolod over the weekend.
Marcial said he was made aware of the video sent to SPIN.ph writer Snow Badua by an alleged hacker who claimed he padded the votes of less popular players in the online voting done on the PBA's official site, primarily those of Keith Zaldivar.
READ 'Hacker' claims he rigged results of PBA All-Star online voting
Zaldivar, a former Adamson player who has played sparingly in his two seasons in the pro league with Converge and Magnolia, ended up as the top vote-getter for the Rookies-Sophomores-Juniors game.
The hacker's claims were serious enough to raise the possibility that this season's lineups for the midseason classic were based on a manipulated vote.
Marcial, however, said the claims do not concern him.
"Wala akong pakialam dyan," Marcial told SPIN.ph. "Basta ang alam ko, naging masaya ang PBA All-Star this year. Masaya kami [doon sa Bacolod], napasaya namin ang mga fans, at pati ang mga players masaya."
"Para sa akin, lahat ng players na nandun [sa Bacolod], deserving [to be an All-Star.]"
The league commissioner made it clear that he found no need to look into the allegations of the individual, saying, "'di ko kailangang imbestigahan 'yan."
READ Yes, Zaldivar really got the most votes for RSJ game
Marcial also answered in the negative when asked if the unexpected results of the online voting, which saw Zaldivar top the RSJ balloting and Magnolia guard Mark Barroca become one of the top vote-getters for the All-Star game, didn't raise any suspicion for him or the league staff.
"Di ako naghinala," he said.
Asked if he isn't concerned that players that may not be deserving to be All-Stars made it to the lineups while those deserving were left out, Marcial went back to his statement that, "Para sa'kin, lahat ng players na nandoon ay deserving."
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Most fans found it odd that the PBA never released the the final tally of votes amid questions over the results.
However, Marcial pointed out that it has never been the practice of the league to release the voting tally since it sometimes needs to adjust the All-Star lineups, depending on the availability, or non-availability, of the players voted in.
Still, Marcial said he will look into the PBA All-Star process for next season, without necessarily pointing to the security of the online voting process.
"Titingnan natin next year," Marcial said curtly.
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