MANILA, Philippines — Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan asked the federation to explore options for the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, including the possibility of holding it at a later date.
The Philippines’ hosting was derailed by the entry travel restrictions on arriving foreigners from over 30 countries, including three that are supposed to come over for the Feb. 18-22 tournament in Clark.
“Medyo nagkakandaugaga ang FIBA (FIBA is scrambling) to find a replacement site. I was telling the SBP: Can we think of an alternative?” Pangilinan said in “The Chiefs” program on One Ph Tuesday night.
“There’s been a lot of expectations on the part of FIBA, on the part of our people because, you know, when you get down to it, nothing much is going on. I hope we could find a way to be able to accommodate this.
“If we cannot set the date in February, I hope we can do that in March or whenever we could,” he added.
The FIBA has yet to decide on the affected Window 3 matches featuring Group A teams the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand as well as Group C squads New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Guam.
Asked if a rescheduling of the supposed Clark bubble is still possible, SBP president Al Panlilio said: “We have to see what the FIBA says.”
Amid the waiting game, it’s still business-as-usual for the Gilas Pilipinas team currently in bubble training in Calamba, Laguna.
“We will continue our preparation,” Gilas coach Jong Uichico told The STAR.
“At this point, we continue practicing,” said Panlilio. “The February window can still happen. We’re waiting for FIBA, in the next few days or next week, to give us an indication of what’s going to happen.”
Panlilio stressed that Gilas’ buildup isn’t just geared towards the third window but in the long run for the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
“This is part of the journey that we have embarked on where we wanted to develop younger players together with veterans from the PBA to create a core team that can be competitive in 2023,” he said.
“This is not just practicing for the window but we’re looking at building for 2023.”