DESPITE the prospects of being issued a cease-and-desist order from the Games and Amusements Board, Filbasket, the newest amateur league in the country, is set to kick off its inaugural tournament in a bubble tomorrow at the Subic Gymnasium in Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
Three games are set to be played every day, with stringent health and safety protocols in place.
Eleven squads are set to do battle in the league, namely, 7A Primus, AICC Manila, Burlington EOG Sports, Davao Occidental Tigers-Cocolife, FSD Makati Army, Medical Depot, Mtrans Buracai De Laiya-BCTA, Muntinlupa Defenders, Nueva Ecija Besprens, Pasig-Sta. Lucia Realtors, and San Juan Knights-Go for Gold.
Matches will be streamed online for free via Tiktok, as well as Facebook and Youtube live. Competing teams started arriving last Monday.
GAB Chair Baham Mitra insisted that Filbasket, led by former Ateneo star Jai Reyes and longtime Sta. Lucia team manager Buddy Encarnado, is a pro league since teams pay salaries to their players.
“I already mentioned na pro sila because they give salaries to their players but it’s really up to them if they want to push through,” Mitra told Malaya-Business Insight yesterday.
“The clearance given to Filbasket by the SBMA and Regional IATF is in the aspect of health and safety protocols for the conduct of the games during the pandemic,” he added.
Reyes and Encarnado insisted Filbasket is an amateur league, with teams giving “token amounts” or allowances to their players.
The league got clearance from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force, and the Department of Health based on the latter’s circular for the leagues not under the GAB and the Philippine Sports Commission.
“The GAB, being the regulatory body tasked to oversee professional sports, is after the aspect of regulation and supervision of professional sports,” Mitra said. “Filbasket has yet to comply with being a professional league as stated in the PSC-GAB joint resolution that defines pros.”
Action will be a single-round robin format, followed by the quarterfinals, knockout semifinals, and best-of-three finals from Oct. 28 to Nov. 22, at the latest.
