INQUIRER Sports

Read Part 1: Stakes reach P300M in varsity hoops

(Second of four parts)

MANILA, Philippines—Game fixing in the country’s premier varsity leagues first came under public spotlight in August 2007, when agents of the National Bureau of Investigation arrested Paolo Orbeta, the College of St. Benilde starting point guard.

“I got a text message that day that something happened to one of our guys,” said Henry Atayde, the school’s representative to the management committee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Police had called a press conference and the college sent a lawyer to represent Orbeta.

“The charges were very clear on paper. It was game fixing,” Atayde said.

Orbeta had been nailed in an entrapment operation. A day after his arrest, the school struck him out of the Blazers’ lineup. The case was later dismissed after the complainant, described as a student-preying loan shark, failed to show up during the hearings.

Atayde said Orbeta completed his studies at St. Benilde. He now works in a call center.

During last year’s NCAA playoffs, a key player of a Final Four team was summoned to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for questioning and later sent home.

School officials then denied that the player was picked up by police, or that he was interrogated about his underwhelming performances in crucial games. A police source later said details of the inquiry were not disclosed for fear of possible diplomatic repercussions.

More recently, an NCAA official confirmed that the player concerned faced investigation after a subpar game. “He was picked up to scare him or something because [school officials] felt he was doing something.”

Scary phone call

The same official said he became aware of the presence of game fixers in the league when unidentified people contacted him while his team was in contention for a Final Four slot.

“A guy started talking to me about a game that we were about to play. I thought it was the press,” the official said.

“And then he said, ‘Do you really want to reach the Final Four? For P50,000 two players are going to drop the game.’ He even named the players,” he added.

“It was scary. The mere fact that they knew me and they called me, I was a bit afraid.”

Atayde told the Inquirer that the NCAA had been looking into game- fixing allegations as early as Season 81 (2005) at Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

“You know who the fans are,” Atayde said. “You have die-hard fans who are there every game. But we noticed a group of people who were not students. Some were muscled, some were big-bodied.”

“The one thing we noticed, for example, during a critical San Beda-Letran game, was that they would switch sides. In NCAA terms, that would be suicide. They also didn’t react. They just sat down, watched the games and kept on text-messaging.”

Slush fund

Concerned, NCAA officials called the NBI, which fielded agents at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. The shady characters disappeared, but the illegal gambling syndicate preying on the varsity leagues remained and appeared to be always a step ahead of authorities.

And the reason is simple. Money, big money, makes the gambling world go ’round freely.

Because gambling is a game of chance, game fixers hope to tilt the odds somewhat by trying to gain some control over the game. The best way to ensure the safety of one’s bet is to allocate part of the projected earnings as a “slush fund” of sorts.

And the math involved is mind-boggling.

“Sometimes, a player can fetch P100,000 for even an elimination round game,” said the Inquirer’s player source, a former standout.

Imagine the stakes when it is the Final Four, or even the championship.

Ateneo de Manila University athletic director Ricky Palou told the Inquirer that as much as P200 million to P300 million in bets can go around in just one season—barely three months of college basketball action.

Who are involved?

Palou mentioned several suspects, including a player in another school who had been caught in the act, too, and was suspended. He had been under surveillance after he was seen being fetched by men in expensive cars.

“The way I heard it, players were asked to turn in their cell phones,” Palou said.

“And he (player) had a second cell phone that he didn’t turn in and that’s how he was caught. The way he was playing, also. He played brilliantly in one game then all of a sudden he played really bad.”

An official of the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), asked if he knew players involved in game fixing without being told about Palou’s list, mentioned specifically the same two players Palou named.

“The (list of) names, it’s like an urban legend,” Atayde said. “Mostly it’s amateurs because if you try to fix games in the PBA, you’ll have to buy players a car or something like that. With student [athletes] they say that one cell phone and a few thousand [pesos] and they’re happy already. But it’s very hard to pinpoint if there’s something going on.”

“I suppose it would be the kids who are not well off who are prone to it,” Palou said. “But I’m not excluding the fact that the rich kids do it because they gamble also.”

There are also referees

Referees are also easy targets, unlike amateur players who dream of joining the professional Philippine Basketball Association.

“Some players have ambitions to make it to the PBA so it might be hard to convince some of them to fix a game. Referees? They have nothing to lose. Conscience lang. It’s only a three-month [varsity] season. They aren’t paid monthly salaries,” Palou said.

“What would they lose if they were taken out of the (UAAP/NCAA roster of referees)? P1,000 a game,” he added.

A former UAAP official revealed that the board had once received a report from a referee in 1999 about an attempt to bribe him. The referee went to one commissioner, Romy Fernandez, who brought it up with the UAAP board.

The case was brought to the NBI, which conducted an investigation and issued a report to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

“If the NBI proved something, nothing happened in the DoJ,” the official said.

“What’s worse is that the referee’s contract wasn’t renewed the following year. So it seemed like he was even punished for bringing it up.”

Toothless law?

Former President Ferdinand Marcos issued several decrees during his martial law regime penalizing game fixing or point shaving and machinations in sports contests. But having a law and enforcing it are two different matters.

In a bid to put more teeth in the law, Palou said he went to see Representatives Robbie Puno and Datu Arroyo and asked if Congress could look into the near fatal shooting last year of Far Eastern University Tamaraw Marnel “Mac” Baracael, allegedly over a game-fixing deal gone sour.

“This is no longer laughing matter. Somebody was already shot. I said it’s about time you guys look into this. But they said they would need a letter from the UAAP.”

Palou immediately mentioned this to the board and then host University of the Philippines. “I don’t know what happened. Apparently, they didn’t write the letter,” he said.

“If I remember right, there was only one case of game fixing proven in the country,” Atayde said, citing a case in the 1970s. “The players were banned for life but they appealed and eventually got back.”

Tracking the perpetrators of game fixing is like tracking a ghost. Suspicious-looking men in the audience cannot just be thrown out.

“They bought a ticket. They’re not there illegally,” Atayde said. “You have to file a suit.”