Harp, nagsalita na sa Rape Case

Hindi natin masasabi kung hanggang saan sana nakarating ang RP basketball team sa Asian Games kung nandoon si Davonn Harp ng Batang Red Bull. Nabugbog tayo sa loob laban sa China’t Korea, at malaki sana ang naitulong ni Harp, na siyang pinakamaganda ang ipinakita noong nasa Hapee-RP pa siya.

Pero bumulaga na lang kay Harp at sa madla ang nagmumurang mga headline sa mga tabloid. Nanggahasa daw siya ng isang peryodista mula sa Visayas. Sa unang pagkakataon, isasalaysay ng PBA All-Star ang kanyang panig.

"Actually, this maybe started back when I was playing in the PBL," kuwento ni Harp. "This girl, she would just come to practice, every day. She used to leave me little love letters and things like that. I thought that we were just friends. One day, she said she was going to come over and do this interview, so I said fine. This was in 2000."

Nagulat na lang si Harp nang, makalipas ang isa't kalahating taon, lumabas sa mga pahayagan ang bintang ng reporter na pinainom niya ito ng pampatulog at pinagsamantalahan. Bakit ganoon katagal bago lumabas ang balita ?

"I’m not that type of person," pagdidiin ni Harp. "I come to find out it was more of a money thing. It’s just unfortunate that it had to go like that. You have to forgive people like that."

Sa mga sumunod na ulat, hiningian diumano si Harp ng pera para hindi na humaba pa ang usapan. Sumunod dito'y bumitaw na si Harp sa RP team.

"At the time when this came out in the newspaper. I was still playing pretty well at the time. I read it in the papers, and went to practice the next day," alala ni Harp.

Laking pasasalamat na lang ni Harp na hindi ininda ng mga kaibigan at kakampi niya ang mga bali-balitang sinakyan ng mga diyaryo.

"I thank the players on the National team that I played with, the coaching staff, they all believed in me. I’m very grateful for that," lahad niya. "They could have very easily said stay away from Vonn, you know he’s a bad guy. The fans, you know, they were real supportive. I go out all the time, and they never said any bad things. So I guess it’s all under the rug."

Maganda ang simula ng Red Bull ngayong All-Filipino Cup, at malaking tulong si Harp, gaya ng lagi. Subalit bakat na sa isipan niya ang pagsira sa tiwala na ginawa diumano ng isang kinikilala niyang kaibigan. Ngayon, doble-doble na ang kanyang pag-iingat.

"I think you can’t really trust people too soon. You know, I’m a friendly person, I like to meet people all the time. But I think I learned you gotta choose who to have as your friends, who you’re gonna trust."