Red Bull protests forfeiture

The controversy over the suspension of prodigious rookie Kerby Raymundo was far from over as his ballclub Red Bull made an appeal to the PBA to reconsider its decision to forfeit the two games won by the Energizers with the former Letran center in action.

Red Bull alternate board representative George Balagtas yesterday questioned the decision to forfeit the won games by the Energizers over the Sta. Lucia Realtors, saying this was not fair since Raymundo was allowed to play in these games with his case still under study.

With this turn of events, Sta. Lucia Realty found itself in the upper half of the chart and the team has a crack at tying San Miguel Beer at second place as the Realtors play the Barangay Ginebra Kings in the Alaxan PBA All-Filipino Cup at the Philsports Arena tonight.

The Realtors improved their win-loss record from 2-4 to 4-2 following the Raymundo fiasco.

"The decision is a clear example of a decision that could destroy the league. It is unfair not only to us but to the other teams not part of the incident," said Balagtas.

"We won both games fair and square on the hard court so why take it from us. I have no question on their decision to suspend Kerby but the forfeiture of our won games, mali yata," said coach Yeng Guiao.

Balagtas stressed they would pursue the case since the Commissioner's Office has approved Raymundo's continued stint in the league though it has received documents questioning the eligibility of the player.

Balagtas said PBA commissioner Jun Bernardino also approved Raymundo's stint in the Davao game of Red Bull and Sta. Lucia Saturday, for the sake of the fans, the game promoter and the league.

Balagtas also cited the case of Purefoods and Sta. Lucia which were not given sanction by the league although Fil-Am players Al Segova and Rob Parker were found by the Bureau of Immigration last year to be ineligible players.

In the other game, San Miguel will gun for its sixth win and a share of the lead when it battles Pop Cola at 7:30 p.m.

Focus in the Sta. Lucia-Ginebra game should be on Jun Limpot and Marlou Aquino who will be meeting their former teams for the first time tonight.

Limpot has been dishing out big games for the Gin Kings and he is likely to spearhead the team's bid for their fourth win in seven games.