Police meet with UAAP execs, probe banned ref

Police investigators have started meeting with members of the UAAP board, coaches and players to gain inputs and information on the alleged game-fixing in the league and its possible link to the recent shooting of FEU cager Mac Baracael.

The authorities will also invite UAAP referee Bryan Tabañag for questioning after he was banned following his performance in  the controversial La Salle-FEU contest.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has also considered subjecting referees officiating in the ongoing UAAP basketball tournament and some players to lifestyle check.

“That’s one possibility because our goal is to scare these unscrupulous individuals or groups of individuals into making mockery of the UAAP games,” said Superintendent Mitchel Filart, chief of CIDG, Quezon City yesterday.

The recent slay attempt on Baracael has revived talks on possible game-fixing in the country’s most popular league which the CIDG has been monitoring since last year.

Police Senior Inspector Fernando Cunanan has also started making rounds in the UAAP circle, asking some board members, coaches and even players for information that would link game-fixing to the Baracael shooting.

Baracael, the star forward of the FEU Tams, survived the attack and is under protective custody by the FEU management.

Meanwhile, four witnesses, including two FEU players, failed to identify the gunman from the CCTV (closed-circuit television) tape during its viewing at the Manila Police District headquarters yesterday.

But it was noted that the tape was a bit blurred compared to the one furnished by the Philtrust Bank security the other day, prompting an investigator to comment that the tape could have been  “spliced or tampered with.”

In fact, Ron Cabagnot and Robert Kave of Papua New Guinea, who were with Baracael at the time of the shooting, had a hard time recognizing themselves on the video. The actual shooting was not caught on film since the camera was focused on another angle.

Cabagnot and two vendors also failed to identify the suspect from among the people on the video.

Kave has decided to forego his stint with the Tamaraws in the current season and is slated to leave for home.

Homicide section head Chief Inspector Dominador Arevalo Jr. said he will try to have the tape digitally enhanced frame-by-frame.

NCR Regional Commander Police Senior Superintendent Ericson Velasquez and Filart said they would investigate Tabañag who made two controversial calls and a non-call in the final three minutes of the La Salle-Far Eastern U encounter the Archers won two weeks ago.

Although Tabañag, vice president of the NABRO or the referees group officiating in the UAAP, admitted committing a mistake, he was never implicated in alleged game-fixing scams.           – With report from Nestor Etolle