WALANG IWANAN: SBP leaves no stone unturned for game officials

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas makes sure that no one will be left behind in their ranks, as the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic took a toll on the sport of basketball for the past four months.

In the latest online forum of the Philippine Sportswriters' Association Tuesday morning, executive director Renauld Barrios told the federation lived up to their name as they initiate the relief efforts on all the game officials displaced from their jobs as a result of the shutdown of the game.

Specifically, they reached out to the referees, scorekeepers and table officials duly licensed by the SBP in the grassroots level whose livelihood is on their games itself when the lockdown was imposed by the government.

"Yung mga nasa local level na mga tournaments sa barangay, LGU. So yung mga nagrereferee dun, nagte-table official doon, biglang wala, ika nga."

With that in mind, they went to work quickly and delegated three of its sixteen regional directors: Central Luzon's Gil Dacoco, Central Visayas' Rico Navarro and Northern Mindanao's Stephen Dacoco to disburse and distribute the relief for those game officials affected, both in cash and in kind as regional offices of the SBP were given ₱150,000 each.

Operations Director Butch Antonio admitted that the SBP is having a hard time moving with regards to resumption of operations, but thanks to the guidelines set by FIBA, the are now planning their preparations for Gilas Pilipinas in both the full game and the 3x3 version.

“Ang hirap pa ring makagalaw, but we just have to make sure that it’s in our awareness na meron pa ring tayong dapat pag-handaan,” said the former manager of Gilas, with the Asia Cup qualifiers are set to resume in November and the 3x3 Men's Olympic Qualifying Tournament have been slated to May of next year.

Screen grab from the Philippine Sportswriters' Association live stream