Bacolod softbelles miss US World Series

BACOLOD CITY — Nine players of the Paglaum National High School softball team arrived here yesterday instead of flying to Sussex County, Delaware in the United States to compete for the 2005 Senior League World Series after their team officials failed to raise enough funds to pay for their airfare.

Ironically, six of their team officials left for the US last week after securing their respective visas Aug. 3 and after promising the team "to source funds in the United States so that the rest of the members of the squad could follow."

The World Series was to open Sunday.

The Paglaum softbelles, who the won country’s first Junior League World Series title in 2003, have been staying in Manila since Aug. 1, hoping to make it to the World Series opening.  However, six of their team officials, including controversial coach Reynaldo "Guy" Fuentes, and principal Benjamin Barredo, along with only three players related to the officials, were able to leave for the US.

The four other officials were Henrietta Rodriguez, a clerk and bookkeeper, who serves as delegation head; Emmanuel Declines, a representative of Vice Mayor Renecito Novero, Fuentes’ son, Francis, and Marilyn Parcia, who are members of the coaching staff. The three players who were able to leave were Declines’ daughter, Christine Jade, Fuentes’ daughter, Rachel, and Carina Claver, sister of former player Christian Mae, who reportedly stayed behind in the US after seeing action in last year’s World Series.

In an interview with Aksyon Radyo, Mercedita Antipatia, mother of player Rossini Antipatia, felt that the group had planned to go "TNT" ( tago-ng-tago or staying illegally in the US) and only used the World Series for their visa application.

"We felt that our child was abandoned. We couldn’t sleep because she was crying. They (players) worked hard just to compete in the World Series and it is sad that the officials left instead of the players, who, in the first place, were the reasons they (officials) were going to the United States," Antipatia said.

Fuentes’ wife, Terry, who went with the RP delegation in the 2003 World Championships in Lakewood Florida, has reportedly gone "TNT." The coach, who has yet to pay arrears amounting to close to P435,000 for the airfare of his wife to Lakewood and three players to a Cebu-based travel agency, had dismissed the charges against him in an interview in October last year.

Meanwhile, Education Training and Center School, the RP entry in the Little League World Series, left for the US Saturday night, while Domingo Lacson National High School flew to Seattle Sunday to compete in the Junior League World Series.