MICAA Revisited: 24 Days after the Crispa Six Scandal (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World Magazine

August 4, 1973

Tessa M. Jazmines

 

 

            What’s with the basketball nuts after the cage fix scandal? Did enthusiasm cool and Coliseum attendance wane? How did the sports buffs take it? What say the ladies and the hero-worshipping kids?

 

            To get the answer SW turned on its radar and acquired a pair of parabolic ears. Sharpened its vision and observed, observed, observed. It watched the crowd at the Coliseum. Listened to loud whispers in the comfort rooms. Sometimes, it used ESP to detect nuances of emotions behind tightly-set lips. More often than not, it asked downright, snoopy questions.

 

            Was your enthusiasm for basketball affected by this cage fix thing? A comely lady called Leila was asked. “It didn’t affect me at all,” she said, “because it didn’t affect the team I’m rooting for.”

 

            “Yes,” a saucer-eyed TV fan named Tiks said sadly when asked the same question. “Everytime I watch the games now, I can’t help wondering whether it’s an act or it’s for real. It saddens me to know that the players are not playing according to their true abilities and displaying their real talents.

 

 

 

            Actually, most of those interviewed displayed unabated interest for the sport. Almost all were just as enthusiastic about watching the games now as before the scandal broke out.

 

            Do you still want to watch the games? SW asked someone who looked like a basketball-smitten teenager. “Oh yes!” came the animated reply. “In fact, I’m exhausting all possible channels to get tickets.”

 

            Others empathized with the involved players. “It’s really going to be hard on those who were caught,” one said.

 

            Some – particularly an artist named Rody – displayed a sharpened sense of justice: “It’s going to affect the performance of the Philippine team,” he said. “But the life ban penalty is good. Masama talaga yun ginawa nila, eh.”

 

            Another fellow’s comment dealt more on the philosophical plane: “A person is only as good as his credibility. A man’s honesty is the key to his credibility. If you don’t have that, who’s going to trust you?” And with an emotion-packed “Sayang,” he shook his head.

 

            Others were so downright mad they wanted the investigation extended to include not noly players but also coaches and referees. It is the children, however, who idolized the fallen players who are most pathetic of all. A mother of four, all Crispa fans, said her children were heartbroken about their heroes. A little girl feels so ashamed and persecuted in school by classmates who taunt her about the players in her favored team.

 

            It seems that those who watch basketball for the thrill of it, who cheer for spirit and root for love – particularly for the team concerned – were greatly affected. On the other hand, those who favor other teams and who would rather think of the whole thing as a minor snag in the tapestry of life just shrug the matter off, view matters realistically, and go on enjoying the games where they left off.

 

            The crowd has not thinned out at the Rizal Memorial either. They still come in packs and droves. The lower box seats still get sold out, and the galleries still teem with people who brave the fickle weather and the oppressive stadium heat.

 

 

 

            Of course, as one enthusiast matter of factly put it, “Kaya maraming nagtitiyaga diyan, hindi dahil sa laro, kundi sa pusta,” – there is a suggestion that betting is very much part of RP basketball.

 

            There is a common consensus among the buffs that quite a number of undesirable activities and characters abound in local bigtime basketball. Almost all, however, are thankful that the MICAA and the BAP, together with the Metrocom have given this matter the necessary attention and applied the necessary pressures to clean the sport of its dirt.

 

            No, it doesn’t look like basketball will lose its following after the cage fix thing. On the contrary, some are even optimistic that the steps being taken at present will improve the sport and give the honest-to-goodness fans who don’t watch the games for money something to shout about.

 

            Soon enough, the hardcourt fistfights, bloody noses and cracked wrists may be suffered again for the real thing. We’d all love that. Wouldn’t you?

Men in a Spot: The Fallen Idols (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World Magazine

July 21, 1973

 

 

            DANNY FLORENCIO. The University of Santo Tomas star, he first played for YCO before moving to Crispa. He has been in every “first” national team (i.e., Olympics or ABC first, the Pesta Sukan, second, etc.) since 1966 when he made the Asiad in Bangkok. In 1967, he was a member of the ABC squad under Caloy Loyzaga and played the hero’s role as the Philippines regained the championship. In 1968, the Mexico City Olympics. In 1969, the ABC in Bangkok, Thailand; in 1970, both the ABC 10^th Year Special in Manila and the Sixth Asian Games in Bangkok; in 1971, the Sixth ABC in Tokyo; and in 1972, the Munich Olympic Games.

 

 

 

            VIRGILIO ABARRIENTOS.  UE spitfire who made up for lack of height with blinding speed and accurate jumpshots. One of the abler reserves of Crispa-Floro, Abarrientos came to his own in the playoff for round honors against Mariwasa in the MICAA Open of 1972 when he led a badly-depleted Crispa five (with Adriano Papa, Jr., Reynaldo Alcantara, Rodolfo Soriano, among those suspended for getting involved in an after-the-game fracas) to force the. Recorders to a best of three playoff (which Mariwasa won).

 

            REYNALDO ALCANTARA.  Also a UE standout before playing for Crispa. He was essentially a backcourt man but scored when the frontliners got muzzled. Made it with Rogelio Melencio, Fortunato Acuña, Ernesto Estrada, Reynaldo Franco, George Lizares, Ramon Lucindo, David Regullano, Renato Reyes, Valeriano Delos Santos, and Rodolfo Soriano as champion team in the first Pesta Sukan; was a member of the 1972 squad which included Joaquin Rojas, Jesse Sullano, Lawrence Mumar, Lucindo, Soriano, Rolando Marcelo, Estrada, Delos Santos, Regullano, Orlando Bauzon and Rudolf Kutch which finished second to South Korea.

 

            RUDOLF KUTCH.  Another UE product, was regarded as potential replacement for Alberto (Big Boy) Reynoso in the post. Made his first national team in 1969 as member of the team to the 5^th Asian Basketball Confederation, repeated in the ABC ’70 and also qualified for the 6^th Asiad in Bangkok; had his fourth stint as a national in the ’72 Pesta Sukan selection. His biggest international accomplishment was checking the fabled Shin Dong Pa of Korea in the 1969 ABC in the first half of play.

 

 

 

            ADRIANO PAPA, JR.  A National University star, he first played for Ysmael Steel in the MICAA, then YCO, before settling with Crispa. Became a national in 1966 as member of the Philippines team to the Fifth Asiad; made the 1967 ABC selection and his first Olympics in Mexico City a year later; returned to form for the 1970 6^th Asiad in Bangkok (after missing the 1969 ABC); made the 1971 ABC and became a two-time Olympian with the Munich meet of 1972.

 

            ERNESTO DE LEON. Pugnacious guard recruited by Virgilio (Baby) Dalupan from the University of the East squad. Steady on the backcourt, he was overshadowed in fame by his teammates but not in performance.

Crispa 6 Scandal: Black Friday for RP Basketball (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World Magazine

July 21, 1973

 

 

            It was a victory that had all the trappings of an old Hollywood script and Cinderella tale.

 

            Here was a team that didn’t even rate a serious look from the experts at the time because it seemed then that it didn’t have what it took to make it all the way to the finals, more so to run away with the title.

 

            And so it went five months ago, the gush of gee whiz prose that was cranked out following Mariwasa’s storybook triumph against the tall odds and a heavily-favored Crispa-Floro ballclub in the best two-of-three finals of the 1973 MICAA All-Filipino basketball series.

 

            Indeed, at that time, in the eyes of both the bleacher fan and the basketball expert, Mariwasa’s victory seemed nothing more than an old story of a gutsy outfit prevailing over the favorite; of a David pulling off an upset over a basketball Goliath.

 

            There was no hint – not even a faint one – that the Mariwasa team, then called the Akai Recorders, might have won not only on account of its own effort to win but probably as a result of the presence in the other team’s linup of players committed to make the breaks turn into Mariwasa’s favor.

 

            Mariwasa, of course, didn’t know it – this unholy alliance among six Crispa players to cut down their usual point output, thus, in effect, loading the deck in Mariwasa’s favor. And so, in so far as the Akais were concerned, theirs was a well-earned, untarnished victory.

 

            Truly, it seemed so and the statistics of the final match underscored the Akais’ mastery almost all the key facets of the game – control of the backboards (34 rebounds against Crispa’s 30), better foul shooting (a 71.42% to Crispa’s 55.55%), less errors (only 11 to Crispa’s 15), and more chances to score (85 field goal attempts to Crispa’s 66).

 

            Mariwasa was down by a point at the half, 38-39, but it forged ahead in the closing minutes on Narciso Bernardo’s clutch shooting to win, 84-80.

 

 

 

            In the first game of the best two-of-three series, Mariwasa was also behind by 10 points, 49-39, but it managed to pull off a close 79-77 victory by consistently pressing while the Crispa lineup was running into a spate of errors and lapsing into a shooting slump.

 

            Understandably, Crispa Coach Baby Dalupan was a sore man inside the Crispa lockers when the title series ended with his favored team a loser in two straight games. In an interview with Enrique Gonzales of the Times Journal, Dalupan blamed “bad officiating” and the way his boys “lost their cool” for the stunning setback.

 

            There was no statement issued by Crispa owner Danny Floro that night.

 

            A few weeks later, however, Danny hinted at a Crispa shakeup in the offing and subsequently stunned the world of local basketball with an announcement that he has decided to drop six Crispa mainstays from the team. The six were Danny Florencio, Adriano Papa, Jr., Rudolf Kutch, Virgilio Abarrientos, Reynaldo Alcantara and Ernesto de Leon.

 

            “Why, that’s almost the whole Crispa lineup!” was the remark that greeted Danny Floro’s announcement.

 

            Almost it was because with the ouster of the six, only four of the ten players used by Dalupan in the title series were left. They were Fortunato Co, Rudy Soriano, Danny Pecache, and Johnny Revilla.

 

            In announcing the shakeup during an interview with Sports World last March, Floro bared his pique at the boys he dropped from the team. “Sobra na! (too much),” he said, referring particularly to Papa’s breach of quarters discipline and Florencio’s refusal to follow orders.

 

            As to the others, Floro said “wala nang disiplina (no more discipline).”

 

            SW knew at this time that there was more than met the eye in the drastic step taken by the usually genial Floro against his six boys. But since he refused to comment on “what really was the reason for the ouster” during the interview, the matter was dropped.

 

            An aide of the Crispa team owner said, however, in an aside that “one day, you’ll know the reason why.”

 

            Finally, last week, four months after SW’s interview with Floro, it broke – the “real reason” why Floro all but dismantled his team following its loss to Mariwasa in the MICAA All-Filipino finals.

 

            In a headline story that it ran, ironically enough on Friday the 13^th, the Times Journal bared how the six players ousted by Floro last summer admitted having thrown the first game of the best two-of-three pennant series for a fee of Php 3,000 each paid by a gambling syndicate.

 

            The players’ admission, the news story said, was contained in a report submitted by the Metrocom Police Investigation Service to Brig. Gen. Alfredo Montoya, Metrocom commander. According to the report – Papa, Florencio, Kutch, Abarrientos, De Leon and Alcantara – owned their participation in the syndicate’s bid to “manipulate” the result of the Mariwasa-Crispa first game in the MICAA finals twice: the first before the MICAA board then before the MPIS.

 

            The MPIS report cited Papa as saying that two days before the game on February 4, an unidentified man gave him the Php 3,000 in his residence. He was asked to contact the other players. In his statement, Papa also reportedly disclosed that “anomalies in bigtime basketball went on even during the time of Carlos Loyzaga and Lauro Mumar.”

 

            Concluding its report, the MPIS said “the gravity of the offense was such that it undermined the faith of the Filipino people in the No. 1 sport in the country.”

 

            Expectedly, the scandal, the first to hit local basketball, touched off a wave of anger and concern among basketball officials and the media. Councilor Lito Puyat, president of the Basketball Association of the Philippines, convened the 21-man BAP board to a meeting to decide on the sanctions that it would take against the erring cagers.

 

            PAAF President Ambrosio Padilla, a former Olympic basketball player, bemoaned the incident. “It is a very sad day for Philippine basketball,” he said, “but the best we can do now is to do everything possible to avoid a repetition of such a case.”

 

            MICAA President Domingo Itchon served noticed that the association intended to take a hard line against the six former MICAA players. “Any penalty is to be imposed on this case should be more severe than a life suspension (from basketball),” Itchon said.

 

 

 

            Acting swiftly to head off the threatening erosion of public confidence in its basketball circuit, the MICAA board slapped a permanent ban on the six erring players and decided to pursue further investigation of other players reported to have committed the same act of dishonesty.

 

            In another move, the MICAA also reminded all the league’s team managers, coaches and players of its rule prohibiting “an official, coach, player, referee, umpire or those connected with the game in some capacity from betting.” Violation of this rule, the MICAA said, will bar the individual concerned from further participation in any game.

 

            The MICAA decision to expand its inquiry into the first scandal ever to hit its popular basketball league apparently stemmed from a disclosure by Capt. Hector Alvarez of the MPIS that “five other Crispa boys” are also involved in the fix.

 

            Capt. Alvarez, who handled the investigation of the scandal, said: “It was established during our investigation of the six Crispa players that five other Crispa boys also received something but no action had been taken against them because our investigation was centered on Papa and his companions.”