Ronald Mascariñas, president and general manager of Bounty Agro Ventures Inc. Photo by Mark Giongco/INQUIRER.net
With the PBA still yet to resolve issues in the Board of Governors, Ronald Mascariñas, Bounty Agro Ventures Inc. president, bared that the Chooks-to-Go brand has decided to abandon its plans of pursuing its own PBA team to exert all of its efforts in helping the national team.
“The last few months of our association with Gilas gave us the realization that it’s best for us to put all our resources behind the national team,” Mascariñas said.
Mascariñas expressed interest in acquiring a PBA franchise before, but the amiable executive had a change of heart after repeated attempts and instead, reaffirmed its partnership with the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) going forward.
Chooks-to-Go has been a primary supporter of SBP’s programs, from the grassroots level in age group 3×3 tournaments to sponsoring the national team in international tournaments like the Jones Cup and the Southeast Asian Games.
The poultry company has also went on to field a squad in the 2017 Fiba Asia Champions Cup in Chenzhou, China, with prospective naturalized import Isaiah Austin, together with this year’s first rounders Kiefer Ravena, Raymar Jose, and Jeron Teng bannering Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas.
“Even if we had limited time to practice, coach Chot (Reyes) was able to assemble a very strong team,” said Mascariñas.
Deciding to go all in with the SBP, Chooks-to-Go will continue to give its all out support for Smart Gilas Pilipinas in the 2019 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers, which starts on Friday against Japan in Tokyo. Chooks-to-Go will also rally behind Gilas in the upcoming 2018 Fiba 3×3 World Cup which will be staged here in Manila.