Case versus ‘Fil-shams’ to be revived?

Sen. Lito Lapid is inviting the PBA players union to a meeting at the Senate Tuesday morning apparently to pick up from where former Sen. Robert Barbers left off insofar as the "Fil-sham" issue in the PBA is concerned.

Lapid, the new chairman of the Senate committee on sports, games and amusements, called the meeting after the voluminous report of Barbers’ investigation on the matter was turned over to his office recently.

It will be remembered that Barbers asked the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to work on the summary deportation of six Fil-foreign players whom he found in a thorough probe to have allegedly falsified documents to be able to play in the PBA.

But the case seems to be gathering dust at the BI, and the supposed "Fil-shams" are still playing in the country’s premier cage league.

Some leaders of the PBA players said they will not attend the meeting since they have lost interest in the case.

"Nagbigay na ako ng panahon ko diyan at tapos na akong nagamit. Dahil kung mayroong mga senador na dapat may nagawa dapat si Senators Barbers and (Robert) Jaworski iyon," said Jojo Lastimosa, who, together with Alvin Patrimonio, stood as the players union’s leaders when they sought help from the Senate to resolve this matter.

"Magiging publicity stunt na naman lang iyan. Tapos na ako diyan," Lastimosa added.

Patrimonio himself won’t be able to attend the meeting since his team Purefoods Hotdogs, together with the Red Bull Barako Thunder, will be leaving for Brunei today to play in the Sultan Cup invitational tournament which will run up to Oct. 1.

However, a renowned player agent said they expect no less than 30 players to troop to the Senate Tuesday to make a courtesy call on the new Senate committee on sports, games and amusements chairman.

He said Sta. Lucia and FedEx players have committed to attend the meeting. Sta. Lucia and FedEx are two teams which have purely home-grown players in their lineups.

There are also free-agent players, like Bonel Balingit and Zaldy Realubit, who are expected to be present in the meeting.

Meanwhile, the Red Bull Barako Thunder and the Purefoods Hotdogs are leaving for Brunei today, two days before they open their campaign in the two-week invitational tourney which offers P1 million to the champion.

The Thunder and the Hotdogs open their campaign in the five-nation seven-team tournament versus the Suncity Dragons of China and Chuon Tzu Yulon club of Chinese Taipei, respectively, Sunday.

A third Philippine squad in Spring Cooking Oil-Laguna, reinforced by American players Faheem Nelson and Keith Friel, makes its debut in the tournament versus Yulon Monday.

It will be a one-round-robin affair in the eliminations with the top four teams advancing to play another round in the semifinals. The top two teams dispute the crown in a one-game final on Oct. 1.

Though allowed to field two imports, Red Bull Barako and Purefoods opted to play all-Filipino in preparation for the PBA All-Filipino Cup which opens Oct. 3 at the Araneta Coliseum.