BY: REYNALD MAGALLON
The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League isn’t taking the game-fixing allegations against the team Bacolod Masskaras lightly, vowing to take serious and stern actions after its game versus Bulacan Kuyas went viral in the social media.
The league has yet to issue any official statement but a reputable source told Tempo-Manila Bulletin that the league is far from pleased with the allegations and promised not to take the incident sitting down.
The league is expected to look into the circumstances surrounding the game, particularly the sequence of plays that raised eyebrows among fans and basketball observers online and is reportedly prepared to take decisive actions to protect the integrity of the competition.
The video of the contest made rounds on social media particularly the final 7:48 of the contest where Bacolod did not make any field goals, allowing Bulacan to come away with a huge 100-64 win.
It wasn’t also the first time that Bacolod suffered such a big loss, also dropping 129-45. The team also sustained a 113-61 loss to Quezon and a 113-62 defeat to Bataan.
While scoring droughts were completely normal in a basketball game, how Bacolod played during that stretch quickly raised suspicion, with one sequence where one of its players went all board on his three-point attempt particularly going viral in social media.
Even broadcast commentator Cedelf Tupas was left perplexed by the effort of the Mascaras, who seemed to be passing up on opportunities to score.
“It’s tough to watch because there were so many opportunities to score. Scoreless in the last eight minutes. Come on. Come on guys,” said Tupas during the broadcast.
Fans were also quick to weigh on the issue with MPBL player and Caloocan guard Kean Baclaan also airing his concern on social media,
“Wag naman sana naten babuyin ‘yung larong minsan nagpalimot sa problema natin! Madaming kabataan gusto makapag laro sa MPBL pero kayo ginawa nyong t*ng* mga manlalaro. Respeto naman kahit konti,” wrote Baclaan.
“Mga bagay na mahirap ipaliwanag sa MPBL. Bacolod hindi maka score sa Q4! Malas lang ba sa shooting or good defense ang Bulacan?,” said the caption of the video that went viral.
“Ito ang dapat imbestigahan, harap-harapan na ito,” one netizen commented.
