By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

 

AFTER three years of hiatus caused by COVID-19 pandemic, the Mangaldan Inter-Barangay Basketball Tournament returned last May 20 with 26 team participants and now with just 15 games remaining to be played in the quarterfinals as I write this piece evening of July 27.

I wish I didn’t have to write this piece but I must do it to point out a fact that despite the continued promotion of basketball in my beloved town, Mangaldan, my town still has not produced a PBA player or a national team member unlike Pozorrubio, Urdaneta City, Malasiqui, Villasis, Sta. Barbara, Lingayen, Binmaley, Alaminos City, Bolinao, Bautista, including small towns Agno and Dasol. They all produced PBA players and national standouts. But modesty aside, only Mangaldan is the only town in the entire archipelago that already produced four national Tour champions since cycling was born in 1955 spearheaded by this writer of Barangay Buenlag, the Cariño brothers Samson and Ruben and their distant relative El Joshua Cariño of Barangay Landas, plus the three-time first runner-up Cesar Catambay of Barangay Malabago including former two national team members Emeterio Natavio and Alex Lopez both from Barangay Guesang and my son, the two-time Olympian (1992 Barcelona, Spain and 2000 Sydney, Australia) Jazy Fernandez Garcia of Barangay Buenlag where he was also born. Our local cyclists still continue to earn more accolades unlike Mangaldan basketball with nil, zero national standing.

Back to the Barangay basketball tourney, I was besieged with queries and laments from numerous basketball enthusiasts. One came from Barangay Salay team that expressed its disappointment against the management of the tourney, headed by the town’s SK federation president Ervin Lomibao and a certain Ildefonso Benton, a municipal sports official. I said to myself, “indeed, enough is enough.” While I’m supposed to report and write stories about the tournament, being a sports writer who often watched  the skirmishes since its commencement, and also being the assistant coach of Barangay Buenlag squad, I personally observed some mishandling of the events. My thoughts were confirmed when somebody handed me a photocopy of the petition letter signed by Salay barangay captain Franklin Campued and Barangay Salay SK Chairman John Denver M. Velasquez. Yes, it was about the unfair expulsion of two of its players, namely, Christian Jake Bato and Jason Randolf Campued. They were reportedly expelled despite claims with supporting documents that the duo are really bona fide residents of Barangay Salay. Not contented with the submitted facts, I sought more background about the Salay team’s lament, I called Salay barangay captain Campued who confirmed that everything written in the petition letter are the truth and nothing but the truth. Still, Campued said there was no official reply to their petition, just a verbal response. But the worst that happened, he said, was the fact that he, as head of the team, SK Chairman Velasquez, the Salay team captain and the duo, Bato and Campued, were never invited to give their sides during the committee’s deliberation.

If Campued’s narration is indeed, true, then the tourney is badly and unprofessionally managed. If this attitude among Mangaldan town sports officials continues, my fellow Mangaldañons will never ever produce a national basketball standout. That’s for sure. The fiasco is not the fault of Mangaldan Mayor Bona but the slip of the organizers should be corrected. SK and barangay elections are coming.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Therefore, thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.” JEREMIAH 11: 11

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