MANILA – It is not just the University of Santo Tomas men’s basketball team.
The body created by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) will also look on the alleged “Laguna bubble” of the National University (NU) women’s volleyball squad.
Games and Amusements Board (GAB) chairman Baham Mitra said that the Lady Bulldogs, whose training videos have been making rounds on social media, have been reached out to explain their side.
In a report by Tiebreaker Times on Monday, meanwhile, an official from NU justified the supposed Laguna bubble of the volleyball team.
“‘Yung mga players natin talagang naiwan (sa Manila campus) kasi akala natin babalik ang UAAP,” the school official told the website. “Nung na-cancel na ‘yung liga last April, hindi na nakauwi yung mga bata kasi enhanced community quarantine pa tayo noon at wala nang ma-book na biyahe pabalik sa (kanilang mga) probinsya.”
The team’s management, according to the source, therefore decided to bring the volleybelles to NU’s state-of-the-art facility in Laguna Inspire Academy when Manila shifted to general community quarantine but with coronavirus disease 2019 cases still rising.
“‘Yung mga atleta lang natin ang nagkusangloob na mag-gym. Siyempre, nandun na rin naman sila sa Inspire na alam naman natin na isang sports facility, kaya sinulit nila kesa ma-boring sila dun,” the official explained.
Aside from GAB, also part of the IATF body are the Philippine Sports Commission PSC and Department of Health./PN
