MANILA – There are no more hitches for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) to restart the stalled Season 46 of the Philippine Cup by September in Pampanga.
This, after PBA commissioner Willie Marcial, said that Pampanga governor Dennis Pineda had given them the go-signal to complete the remainder of the All-Filipino conference at the Don Honorio Ventura State University (DHVSU) gym in Bacolor.
“The league is only waiting for the approval of DHVSU president Dr. Enrique Baking before finalizing [the] actual date of the resumption of the games,” according to Marcial on Monday.
The PBA teams arrived in Pampanga on Monday and would begin practicing today at three different locations: Angeles University Foundation Gym, Beverly Place in Mexico, and Colegio De Sebastian in San Fernando, Marcial added.
The PBA halted its Philippine Cup matches on Aug. 4 after the National Capital Region was under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the Delta strain of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
With the implementation of ECQ, gyms were closed to any activity, which did not spare the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City, where the league held its first 26 matches under a close-circuit setup. The PBA sought to move its games to Bulacan at first, but the area was also escalated to ECQ, forcing them to relocate to Pampanga, which is currently under the general community quarantine.
According to the PBA commissioner, the COVID-19 testing program is being ramped up, and the testing cycle will be every seven days, with an additional antigen for each team that will play on that day.
The league will also use a new approach of releasing game schedules by week, with the possibility of compressing its schedule, similar to the Philippine Cup last year./PN
