Felix Tiukinhoy Jr. | CDN File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Unhappy with the display of unsportsmanlike behavior by some players, Commissioner Felix “Boy” Tiukinhoy Jr. said that the time has come for the game organizers to already review ground rules governing the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi).
Tiukinhoy reached his conclusion following the recent fracas between the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers and University of San Carlos (USC) Warriors which resulted to the ejection of three players.
However, changes in the ground rules can no longer be implemented this season.
“I cannot change the ground rules in the middle of the season. So next year, before the season starts, I will be calling all athletic directors so we can discuss and come up with the changes and have it approved by the board,” said Tiukinhoy.
Last October 10, a scuffle erupted in the collegiate basketball game with 2.5 seconds left in the ballgame that had the referees ejecting Steven Ursal of the USPF and USC’s Kenneth Brillo and Froilan Maglasang Jr.
According to the referees, Ursal had thrown a punch at Brillo which prompted the latter to retaliate with a few punches of his own.
Maglasang, on the other hand, was ejected because according to referees, he had entered the court during the fracas.
This was not the first time that players were ejected from their games this season and also not the first incident involving the USPF Panthers.
In their game against defending champion University of the Visayas (UV) Green Lancers last October 1, the Panthers also got involved in a fight which resulted to the ejection of UV’s Gileant Delator and Jiersel Tarrosa.
Both USC and UV also got involved in a game commotion against USPF in this year’s off season tournaments.
Tiukinhoy said that he is more concerned of players throwing punches against each other during the regular season.
He said that he is now considering the possibility of increasing from one to three games the suspension of erring players but without any fine anymore. The other option is to increase the fine to P10,000 and the number of hours of community service to eight from four.
Tiukinhoy said that he cannot also review or change the decision of the referees based on video recordings of the games because that is not specified in the Cesafi ground rules.
As to the idea of banning players due to repeated unsportsmanlike behavior, Tiukinhoy said that the Cesafi ground rules only have provisions for banning players for playing in another tournament while the Cesafi is ongoing.
“I will decide based on the ground rules of the Cesafi, if there’s none then we’ll refer to the FIBA (International Basketball Federation),” said Tiukinhoy.
Tuikinhoy was on a business trip to Beijing, China when the commotion involving USPF and USC players happened, but he was kept abreast of what transpired. / dcb