MANILA – Davao Occidental has been officially declared the MPBL South Division champion after Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes announced on Tuesday that Basilan forfeited their supposed rubber match due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Duremdes confirmed that some more Steel players have been tested positive for Covid-19.
"Update is four ang positive (The update is that four were tested positive)," Duremdes said.
The league gave a condition that for Basilan to play Davao Occidental in the supposed MPBL South Finals decider, everyone must be tested negative in their re-test on Monday.
But with Duremdes' confirmation, the match has been declared forfeited in favor of the Tigers, who have an extra week of rest.
This put a bitter end to what has been a promising season for the Steel.
Banking on a solid lineup led by Gilas Cadet Allyn Bulanadi and former PBA star Jonathan Uyloan, Basilan made a full season turnaround from a moribund MPBL debut in the 2018-19 season to title contender status for 2019-21.
Despite finishing the regular season in third place in the South standings, the team stunned second seed Bacoor City in the division semis to set up a showdown with Davao Occidental for one of the two national finals spots.
The Steel stunned the Tigers in Game 1 in Tagum and came close to complete the South Finals upset in Game 2 in Lamitan.
But Davao Occidental recovered in the end to force the decider supposedly in Davao City only that the pandemic postponed the MPBL season and eventually forced the Subic bubble one year later.
Davao Occidental and San Juan will rekindle their rivalry at the start of the best-of-five national finals at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Subic Bay Gymnasium.
The games will be played daily except for a day-off on Friday.
Not Covid?
Duremdes' decision came as a surprise to a Basilan team official, who claimed that one of the players who got a positive Covid-19 test turned out to be a false positive.
"Yung naunang nagpositive, hindi daw Covid sabi [ng] hospital (The first player tested positive was actually not for Covid according to the hospital," the official told the Philippine News Agency.
He then relayed a conversation within the team with the baller claiming that it was an upper respiratory tract infection, even believing that there was something fishy going on.
The official said the team is considering appealing the forfeiture, but according to him upon trying to clarifying matters with the league officials, "Walang masagot MPBL (The MPBL could not provide us with a valid answer)."
By the looks of it, however, the MPBL is now keen on pushing through with the Davao Occidental-San Juan series. (PNA)
