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| PBA commissioner Willie Marcial will decide on the fate of the Governors' Cup by February. Dennis Acosta (file photo) |
MANILA—PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said that he will call for a meeting within the league's board of governors next month to discuss the fate of the postponed Governors' Cup.
According to the league's 10th chieftain, he sees February as the make-or-break month to determine whether the season-ending conference could push through amid the ongoing COVID-19 spike or not.
"Ang crucial, malalaman natin by February kung ano ang patutunguhan ng PBA. By February, malamang magpatawag uli ako ng isang board meeting para mapagusapan kung saan tayo dadalhin ng pagkakataon ngayon," Marcial said in the Sports on Air Weekly podcast on Friday.
Metro Manila has been placed under Alert Level 3 in terms of the current COVID-19 situation locally, and as announced by Presidential Spokesman Karlo Nograles later in the day, it will continue until Jan. 31.
Although the Games and Amusements Board is allowing the PBA to play inside a bubble, the league opted to postpone the games all along as the number of cases continues to grow in a fast pace.
Marcial said that he remains cautious of the situation especially that he believes the players could still contract COVID-19 even if the PBA converges them within a bubble.
"Ang concern namin, kahit full bubble o home-venue-home ang tema, nakakasigurado ba tayo na safe pa rin tayo sa pag-uwi natin pag mataas yung cases?" Marcial added.
He also said that he apologized to the team owners and governors that the PBA had to scrap its entire January game schedule out of health and safety concerns despite their businesses already suffering regressions of up to 50-70 percent of their pre-pandemic revenues.
For now, according to Marcial, he will first take a look at the current trend of the rise in cases, and if the spread slows down significantly, then he can now map out the resumption plans of the league.
"Pag bumaba yan (active cases), dahan-dahan na, pero kung mataas pa rin, nakakatakot di lang sa amin pati mga players," he further said.
The Philippines a new record-high number of new COVID-19 cases on Thursday at 34,021.
However, considering that only 17,069 of the new cases came from Metro Manila, OCTA Research fellow Guido David projects that the COVID-19 spike in the province might have already peaked especially that the reproduction rate is now down to 3.77 from 6.12 last week, a positive sign for the PBA's resumption plans.
Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno
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