Final push for Fiba bid

A HIGH-POWERED team led by Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan and boxing icon Manny Pacquiao left for Tokyo in separate groups yesterday to make one final push to bring the Fiba World Cup back to the country for the first time in almost four decades.

Hollywood star Lou Diamond Philips, whose mother is Filipino, will join the group in Japan as the big Philippine delegation makes its final presentation to the Fiba board tomorrow, hoping to beat China for the hosting rights of the 2019 tournament.

“Basketball is coming home,” is the battlecry of the group, which also includes Sen. Sonny Angara, Rep. Robbie Puno and practically the whole think-tank of the governing Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.

The Philippines last hosted a Fiba event in 2012, when it was awarded the rights for the Fiba Asia Men’s Championship after Lebanon backed out at the last minute because of the volatile security situation in the capital, Beirut.

Jimmy Alapag, the recently retired international star who has been the face of the Gilas Pilipinas program, and former national coach Chot Reyes will present the Philippine case to the Fiba board.
Like a religion
The presentation starts around 5:30 p.m. (Manila Time), and just like in 2012, also in Tokyo, the winning bidder will be known after just a few hours.

The Philippines’ main pitch has been how the sport is embraced practically like a religion in the country.

Hosting the 2012 Fiba Asia championship—where the Filipinos wound up second to Iran to book a return trip to the World Cup for the first time since 1978—has already given the sport’s world governing body an insight in how basketball is loved here.

Pangilinan left on a private jet, while Pacquiao took a commercial flight. Del Rosario, Puno and Angara flew to Tokyo together.

Incidentally, the SBP wants to tap into the Filipinos’ passion for social media to get the Fiba nod and has called on basketball fans to tweet #puso2019@fiba.