THE PBA is set to crack the whip on erring players who suited up in an unsanctioned league in Cebu over the weekend.
Citing a memorandum approved three years ago, pro league Deputy Commissioner Eric Castro said hefty fines and suspensions await those who saw action in the “ligang-labas.”
“We have a memo back in 2020 about slapping P50,000 fine for those players who are playing in unsanctioned tournaments, especially kapag hindi sila nagpaalam sa mga mother teams nila,” Castro said yesterday during the Philippine Sportswriters Association forum at the conference hall of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.
“In this case right now iyong sa Cebu, mukhang they didn’t get the permit from their mother teams. If I’m not mistaken, may suspension din iyon,” he added.
Castro said Commissioner Willie Marcial will meet next week with the cagers involved in the Cebu exhibition match that was marred by an endgame brawl between JR Quinahan of NLEX and a foreign player.
Aside from Quinahan, the other players who suited up in the Cebu game were Rain or Shine’s Beau Belga, Jio Jalalon of Magnolia, and NorthPort’s Robert Bolick, who all played for the Northball team.
Nortball clashed with an import-laden Sirius Sta squad that was composed of streetballers from the United States in an exhibition game at the Carmen Municipal Gym.
After Quiñahan got into a fist fight with a foreign player, Belga retaliated by throwing the ball at the opposing player.
The commotion was recorded on video that has since gone viral.
Belga, who had also played in exhibition matches in Davao and Laguna, was handed an additional fine of 15 days’ worth of his salary.
“(The) Rain or Shine team management has concluded its internal investigation and found that Beau Belga breached his PBA Uniform Players’ Contract by participating in exhibition games in Cebu, Davao, and Laguna,” the Terry Que and Raymund Yu co-owned ball club said in a statement on its social media page yesterday.
“A fine of fifteen (15) days’ worth of salary has been imposed on Beau.”
