By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Two weeks after the controversial game between the Siquijor Mystics and the ARQ Builders Lapu-Lapu team, the issue still haunts the whole Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup.
Organizers received flak and were accused of mishandling the league due to the uncanny outcome of the game which was ended at halftime.
When both teams were given the chance to air their respective sides, most of the ARQ Builders members chose to talk about what happened on social media which was aired first in Mikee Reyes’ Youtube channel when Rendell Senining, the one who shot his freethrows both left and right, exposed what really happened inside the playing court.
Meanwhile, the entire Mystics squad remained silent and did not even clarify why they played the way they did, missing tons of open layups and nonsensically fouling players.
VisMin Chief Operations Officer Rocky Chan then sent a formal letter to Siquijor Governor Zaldy Villa and Congressman Jake Villa stating their whole-hearted apology for the incident.
“We were only informed last April 14 that the provincial government of Siquijor was not in any way involved with the team coached by Joel Palapal who joined our league and disgraced not just us and the wonderful province of Siquijor but more so the game of basketball,” the letter read.
Recalling the game, it was COO Chan who called the attention of both teams when a technical difficulty interrupted the game.
Chan tried to grasp what was happening between the two teams and reminded them to play the game the right way but things continued the way they started.
“The league takes full responsibility in accepting the team which called itself the Siquijor Mystics which on record was solely funded by businessman Bernard Lim. Our fault is that we trusted them based on our ‘love of the game’ not knowing that Messr Palapal and Lim misrepresented the local government unit of Siquijor,” continued the letter.
