THE PBA needs to thresh out one small but vital detail before finally resuming the Philippine Cup next week.
According to Commissioner Willie Marcial, he needs an official letter from Pampanga Gov. Delfin Pineda allowing the league to play at the Don Honorio Ventura State University gym in Bacolor as official game venue before the Philippine Cup could pick up where it left off last Aug. 4.
“Hinihintay na lang natin ang formal letter,” Marcial told Malaya-Business Insight yesterday.
“Kasi ‘yung letter na ‘yun i-pe-present ko sa IATF para malaman nila na okay na lahat tayo doon sa Pampanga,” added Marcial. “So kailangan talaga natin iyon para maging pormal lahat.”
Marcial added the league should have the formal letter by tomorrow, paving the way for the tournament that has been on hold since its last playdate on Aug. 1 to resume next Wednesday.
Based on a verbal permission from Pineda, all the 12 teams will travel to Pampanga today with the hope the tournament could finally resume without any major glitch.
The travel was helped along by all the teams, each limited to only 25 persons, getting negative results from the RT-PCR tests they went through starting last Friday.
The league had previously said that majority of the teams would stayat the Quest Hotel in Clark, with the rest spread out in resorts or villas within the province.
The delegates from the PBA Commissioner’s Office would head out to Pampanga by the end of this month although Marcial has selected a small advance party, led by Deputy Commissioner and Operations chief Eric Castro, to make sure all the teams are properly settled in.
For the moment and once they choose to do so, the teams could start using the league-mandated practice facilities at the Angeles University Foundation gym, Colegio de Sebastian in San Fernando, and Beverly Place in Mexico.
Still being worked out is permission to include the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando—currently being used as a vaccination site—as another practice facility.
