Dubai bump-off draws Talk N’ Text’s ire
MANILA — No one stayed behind and they left us on our own.
This was how former PBA chair and Talk ‘N Text governor Ricky Vargas described yesterday the ordeal of the Texters when they were stranded on their way home from a two-game stint in Dubai Sunday.
Vargas was referring to the PBA staff, which left the Texters on their own to deal with the situation. Vargas wants a “thorough investigation” on the matter.
He said that while the PBA venture was a success based on the turnout, it was not enough to clear commissioner Chito Salud and his staff for the fiasco that left the Texters bumped off from their flight.
Vargas, who is in Singapore and will not be back until tomorrow, told the Inquirer via an overseas call that the commissioner’s office should have done “due diligence in the selection of the events coordinator,” noting that the Dubai project had already been postponed before due to money problems and the promoter, Ramon Pizarras, had previously mishandled a recent Ateneo-La Salle exhibition there.
What piqued Vargas—and team owner Manny V. Pangilinan—the most was the fact that no one from the PBA stayed behind to help the Texters, who took nine hours to book separate flights to Manila.
He dismissed the PBA’s excuse that everyone from the Salud’s staff had already checked in and could no longer get off the plane.
“We were the first to arrive and check in. They were not in the plane,” Vargas said. “In the eyes of the teams, they (Commissioner’s Office) were the ones who brought us there. And no one stayed behind and they left us on our own.”
Meanwhile, Meralco, Pangilinan’s second team, tries to add to Air21’s woes even as Petron guns for a third straight win over sister squad B-Meg in the Governors’ Cup today.
The B-Boys try to arrest a two-game slide in the 5 p.m. contest, while the Llamados, the first team to beat the Texters, slug it out with the Boosters at 7:30 p.m. at the Araneta Coliseum.
