MBA blow-up on the horizon?

The loose ends of the MBA are starting to haunt them. A month after the league announced its surprise closure, the Olongapo Volunteers, Cagayan de Oro Amigos, Pampanga Stars and Pangasinan Waves desperately sought to know what had happened to the two month’s pay owed them.

Representatives of the five teams asked this writer to accompany them on an unannounced visit to the governing Multi-Regional Basketball, Inc. (MRBI) board meeting last Tuesday to ask when they would get paid.

"We were deeply disappointed," confessed Olongapo team manager LJ Gordon. "We accepted the MBA with open arms, me and my family, especially my Dad (Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon) were very excited. We were a new team and we were performing well, then they suddenly announced the league was closed."

"Nag-eensayo kami sa gym namin sa Pampanga, tapos pinalayas kami dahil may utang kami," added Pampanga team manager Allan Trinidad.

"We’ve had players, wives and mothers crying to us over the phone," says Amigos head coach Vic Ycasiano. "They’ve had to return cars and appliances they were paying on installment, they’ve had their phones cut, some have been evicted from their homes."

After waiting for more than two hours for the board to allow them into the meeting, the group pleaded to be given their due.

"We’re not even asking for the full year, like it says in our contracts," declares Pangasinan coach Lawrence Chongson. "We just want to be paid for what we worked for."

Initially, the MRBI board offered the equivalent of a half-month’s pay. The group turned it down. Later, they came close to accepting P 5 million, or the equivalent of P1 million per team, in lieu of the P13.5 million collectively owed them. They were to meet again yesterday morning.

However, the group claims that, upon meeting with MBA chair Santi Araneta of the LBC Batangas Blades and Cebuana Lhuillier Gems general manager Danny Francisco, they were only offered P 2.5 million with no certain date when it would be disbursed to them.

The group is now seeking other ways to get their money. One is to seek an audience with Senator Robert Jaworski and Rep. Monico Puentevella of the respective congressional sports committees, and attempt to talk with MBA top management again.

"How many more Teddy Alfareros and Alex Clarinos are they going to create?" Chongson said. "We can wait. But our players are going hungry."