Players violating health protocols by the Philippine Basketball Association during team workouts face corresponding fines.
League commissioner Willie Marcial said the act of penalizing guilty players was agreed upon during the PBA Board meeting over the weekend as a way to ensure that guidelines would be strictly followed under the ‘closed circuit concept.’
As per the model arranged by the league, players will have to strictly observe a daily routine of home-gym-home once team began working out by clusters tentatively on July 22.
Otherwise, a violation meant a fine beginning at P5,000 or more.
“Ang players dapat bahay, sasakyan, gym. So dapat huwag kang aalis (sa concept),” said Marcial, gracing the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum webcast on Tuesday.
“Kung lalabas ka at pupunta sa supermarket or drugstore dahil hindi mo naman mai-iwasan, kailangan sabihin mo kasi may (daily) log kami. Dapat may disiplina talaga.”
First offender will be fined P5,000, with the amount increasing by the numbers of offense committed.
A different and higher penalty is also imposed on players violating the protocols during individual workouts.
“Kapag ang players naman nag-violate ng protocols sa practice, P20K (ang fine nila),” Marcial emphasized in the weekly forum presented by San Miguel Beer, Go For Gold, Amelie Hotel, Braska Restaurant, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), and powered by Smart.
“Mas malaki yung fine kapag nilabag mo yung protocols doon sa practices.”
The fine will be doubled with succeeding offenses committed, added the PBA chief.
Even the health officer in-charge of monitoring the players’ workout isn’t exempted from being penalized.
“Sabi ko sa mga players mag-sabi kayo sa amin kung may violation ang safety officer ninyo. At kapag nalaman namin at napatunayan na may violation nga, P20K yun,” Marcial said.
Only four players, a coach or trainer, together with the safety officer will be allowed inside the training facility once team workouts begin. Training by teams will be done by batches.
Players and others involve in the workouts are required to undergo swab testing at the San Miguel Corp. facilities before they are allowed to participate in the training.
Meanwhile, the PBA will be able to find out if any member of a team will test positive of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease through cluster isolation.
This will help the PBA follow health protocols closely when practice sessions begin by July 22.
“By batches. Doon natin titingnan kung may nag-positive,” said Marcial.
Cluster isolation is one of the health protocols approved by the board, drawn out during an online meeting last Saturday.
“Bawal pang mag-practice, kaya dahan-dahan lang,” added Marcial, who talked about the protocols that the PBA needs to observe when the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases, allowed the return to practice for professional basketball and football players.
Guidelines were disclosed when PBA coaches met with the the Games and Amusement Board last week.
Under the guidelines, only four players per team with one coach and a health officer will be allowed at the training facility.
The four players will have an hour to practice, before another batch replaces them for another practice session.
Then, there will also be a separate schedule for groups so players will have alternate training days.
Marcial said anytime a team has at least one player, or a team staffer, who tests positive, the participation of that certain group will no longer be allowed to join the workouts.