Roque: Ayo, others not off the hook yet

PALACE Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the resignation of University of Santo Tomas ( UST) men’s basketball team head coach Aldin Ayo and his assistant coaches Mcjour Luib and Jinino Manansala did not mean they would be spared from sanctions for organizing an unauthorized training camp at Capuy, Sorsogon in midJune while the whole country was in lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fr. Jannel Abogado, UST’s former athletic director, was the first to resign in relation to the case on August 26. “Kung mer ont ala gang violation, ha ha bu lin par in‘ y an( If there is really a violation, they will be made accountable),” Roque told TheManilaTimes in a phone interview. “Tuluy-tuloy par in‘ y an, si ye mp re( The[ investigation by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases] will continue).”

It was former UST Growling Tiger CJ Cansino who revealed the existence of the “Sorsogon bubble.” Cansino, who was kicked out of the team, has joined the University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons.

“They (Department of Justice) will determine if there’s a criminal liability,” said Roque. In a phone interview last Friday, Games and Amusements Board Chairman Abraham Mitra Jr. told TheManila Times that the board would be forwarding its report on the case to the Justice Department today, September 7.

Meanwhile, a member of the Board of Managing Directors of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, who requested anonymity, said the association would probe the case deeper despite Ayo’s resignation.

JOSEF T. RAMOS