PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines— The PBA will look into allegations that several of its players were offered bribes to fix games by a Singaporean businessman in 2018.
Commissioner Willie Marcial made this assurance but offered no further comment on charges filed against a certain Koa Wei Quan, who was accused of offering almost $70,000 not only to PBA players but also from Thailand Basketball League.
“We will investigate,” Marcial said Saturday.
Magnolia’s Ian Sangalang, former PBA player Leo Avenido and current PBA 3×3 star Almond Vosotros have been mentioned in the story by The Straits Times as among those offered by Koa in both leagues.
Sangalang was allegedly offered $5,000 by Koa in April 2018, at the time when Magnolia was facing San Miguel Beer in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.
Avenido and Sergei Bien Orillo were mentioned in the article as having worked with Koa to arrange for Magnolia to lose by nine points to San Miguel Beer in Game 5 of the same series.
The game turned out to have ended in the exact margin as San Miguel won in double overtime, 108-99, to win the championship after Magnolia lost a lead late in regulation.
The report also mentioned that several Blackwater players received offers from Koa to influence the results of two Commissioner’s Cup games against Columbian (now Terrafirma) and Phoenix.
Vosotros, meanwhile, allegedly got an offer of $1,000 and $1,500 from a middleman to have his Thai club PEA to lose against Mono Vampire and “play out a total score of under 165 points” against Hi-Tech which both happened in July 2018.