NLEX coach Yeng Guiao has a special request for the Road Warriors’ representative to the PBA Board, to be formally submitted in the governors’ meeting today.
“Sabi ko sa mga boss namin, baka pwedeng ibalik practices kahit sa small group muna through a special permit from the IATF,” related Guiao.
“’Yung PBA (teams) naman hindi naman ordinary ginagawa. Nag-te-test kami regularly, may protocols kami, na di naman ginagawa ng ibang tao,” added Guiao.
“Why should we subject ourselves to the same restrictions as other groups or entities or individuals? Okay naman mga health and safety protocols na sinusunod lagi namin.”
Commissioner Willie Marcial could not be contacted for comment yesterday but it seems likely that Guiao’s request would be entertained or even forwarded to the government body tasked with making policies regarding the country’s battle with the pandemic.
But considering the other more pressing matters to be discussed, it is also likely the request would be put on the backburner.
The PBA Board hopes to emerge from the meeting armed with answers to some nagging questions regarding the pro league’s 46th season, still under a shroud of uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
“Mas malinaw na sana sa Monday, kung papaano na tayo,” Marcial has said in a previous interview.
The main topics to be discussed and hopefully resolved are the league’s financials and, most important, how to go about with the season initially planned to be a two-conference, 10-month affair.
Marcial has also said before that the dire scenarios for the PBA are, first, for the season to be limited to just one conference anew like last year or being scrapped altogether.
Either simply wouldn’t do for the pro league, which already took a huge financial blow last season when it was limited to just the Philippine Cup, which reportedly cost more than P60 million to stage.
Teams which suffered the most by paying all their players in full the last 17 months, while steadily losing revenues, are reportedly set to ask the Board to implement pay cuts, a ticklish matter in itself.
There are other tougher questions begging for answers.
The opening alone, first targeted April 9, has been pushed back twice, no thanks to the government’s restrictions following the drastic rise in virus cases in parts of the country, particularly Metro Manila and its neighboring provinces of Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and Rizal.
The so-called “NCR Plus bubble” is still under the restrictive MECQ, two notches above the level needed for the teams to be able to return to their small group, non-contact practices put on hold since March 29.
The quarantine level in the NCR Plus may be eased down to GCQ or the more relaxed MGCQ by the start of next month and the PBA may then be able to set a late-May opening preceded by crammed, full-contact practices.
But that scenario remains bleak since the COVID situation is still beyond control.
One way to rein in the pandemic and for the prevailing restrictions relaxed is through anti-COVID vaccines.
