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While calling the incident “unfortunate,” Senator Sonny Angara stood by Gilas Pilipinas after the team got into a brawl with the Australian Boomers Monday night.
“It was an unfortunate event but I stand by the Gilas team on this. One may criticize how the game ended, but the true test of a fan is to stick with his team win or lose, through thick and thin,” Angara, chairman of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas said in a statement on Tuesday.
READ: Brawl breaks out in Gilas-Australia game
He said it was unfortunate that things got out of hand, which could have been prevented “if the referees had tightened officiating to better control the game.”
“In the heat of the moment, the players on both sides had to stand up for each other. It is not only a universal human reaction in a team sport, but for those who have played the game, looking after each other is part of the brotherhood among team members,” Angara said.
“But let me make this crystal clear: sanctions must be meted out, apologies extended as true sportsmen would, non-players who joined the melee should be punished, and above all, lessons learned so that this should not happen again,” he added.
Despite this, the senator reassured the world that the incident was isolated and that Filipinos remain the “most hospitable race, in and out of the court, as millions of visitors who visit us annually would attest.”
“As a team and as a nation, let us move on from this incident, and focus on the national project of hosting the best FIBA Word Cup ever, in 2023,” Angara said.
For Malacañang, the incident was not only unfortunate but also the “height of being unsportsmanlike.”
“Let’s just say that we found the whole incident unfortunate. It was of course the height of being unsportsmanlike,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace briefing. /muf
READ: Palace on Gilas-Australia brawl: Unfortunate, unsportsmanlike