FIBA honors Perlas Pilipinas with bronze recognition for its three-year progress

AFTER improving by leaps and bounds in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments, Perlas Pilipinas received a bronze recognition from the world’s governing body in basketball, a testament of its achievement for the past three years.

National women’s basketball team coach Patrick Aquino couldn’t be more proud on the honor given to his team by FIBA, whose recognition was signed by no less than its President Horacio Muratore and Secretary General Patrick Baumann.

“This is a tribute to the team’s hard work and passion to achieve our goals,” Mr. Aquino told BusinessWorld in an interview. “I couldn’t thank them more enough. I was overjoyed by this recognition from FIBA, but we couldn’t have done it without the support of our bosses. To our Perlas Pilipinas team, let’s prove it and achieve our goals in the coming tournaments.”

Last year, Perlas Pilipinas won the SEABA Women’s Championship, which earned the team a berth in the Level 1 competition of the FIBA Asia Women’s Championship this coming July. The Filipinas are also taking part in the Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia this August.

Mr. Aquino said they would use this recognition as motivation for the major events on tap.

“This will definitely motivate the team,” he added. “But we cannot stop form here as we have bigger tasks at hand.”

Perlas Pilipinas has started its preparation for the FIBA Asia Women’s Championship and the SEA Games. The team underwent training in Malaysia for three days and used this opportunity to get their newest acquisition Daniela Nopuente, a Filipina guard who has played the past few years in the United States.

But the cagebelles also got a big boost recently as naturalized prospect Kelly Hardeman, a Fil-American who is now playing in Denmark, agreed to represent the Philippines in future tournaments.

Blackwater top honcho Dioceldo Sy has already met with the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas represented by Butch Antonio, the executive director for international affairs on the possibility of naturalizing Ms. Hardeman.

Now that Ms. Hardeman has agreed to play, the next step is the legislative process and Mr. Sy is hoping they could fast track the granting of naturalization on the six-foot player who grew up here in Cainta before leaving to play for college in the United States.

“I think it could be fast tracked because she’s a Filipina and she grew up here. The only technicality she had was she wasn’t able to obtain her Philippine passport before she turned 16,” added Mr. Sy.

Mr. Aquino said with or without Ms. Hardeman, Perlas Pilipinas is determined to win the gold medal in the SEA Games.

“That’s our objective, to win the gold. Nothing less. We’ve already done that in the SEABA, so our next step is to win the SEA Games,” he added.

Perlas Pilipinas has kept the core of its line up headed by mainstays Afril Bernardino, Allana Lim, Camille Sambile, Ara Abacca and Amby Almazan. —