The Philippine Basketball Association said Saturday it will look into a published report that several players were offered bribes to influence the outcome of certain games during the 2017-18 season.
"We will investigate this," PBA commissioner Willie Marcial told ESPN in Tagalog. "We will get to the bottom of this and see what really transpired."
Singapore's Straits Times reported late Friday that a Singaporean named Koa Wei Quan offered bribes amounting to around $70,000 "to fix the results of basketball games in Thailand and the Philippines."
Koa was charged in Singapore with 14 counts of graft after being accused of trying to influence games in the PBA and Thailand Basketball League between April and July 2018.
Court testimony showed that Koa with the help of two others, former PBA player Leo Avenido and a certain Sergei Bien Orillo, allegedly offered Magnolia Hotshots center Ian Sangalang $5,000 to influence the outcome of Game 5 of the 2018 Philippine Cup Finals between his team and San Miguel Beermen -- and have the latter win by at least nine points.
The Beermen won that game, 108-99, in double overtime to clinch the Philippine Cup title in five games. Sangalang scored 11 points on 4-of-13 field goal shooting and 3-of-6 free throw shooting and had eight turnovers.
As of posting time, Hotshots coach Chito Victolero had not responded to ESPN's request for comment. Meanwhile, Sangalang's agent Danny Espiritu declined to comment except to say his son Marvin was handling the situation.
Koa was also said to have offered bribes of up to PHP525,000 to unnamed players from the Blackwater Elite (now Blackwater Bossing) to either win by four points or less, or lose their April 22 Commissioner's Cup game against Terrafirma Dyip. The Dyip walloped the Elite, 126-98.
Koa also allegedly worked again with Avenido and Orillo to influence the April 25, 2018 Commissioner's Cup game between Blackwater and Phoenix Super LPG by offering several unidentified Blackwater players around PHP1.5 million to win the game.
Reached for comment, Blackwater owner Silliman Sy said he had also read the article but that it was "difficult to make accusations".
"Maybe (we) will wait for the verdict and see what safety nets to adopt in case of such incidents," Sy added. According to the report, Koa was also accused of influencing games in Thailand. TNT Tropang Giga 3x3 player Almond Vosotros, who played in Thailand in 2018, was allegedly offered three bribes in June and July 2018 amounting to $3,700, according to prosecutors.
Vosotros, who played for the Provincial Electricity Authority, was allegedly first offered a bribe of $1,200 to help set a 23-point spread in the June 24, 2018 game between Thai General Equipment and the PEA. TGE won the game, 102-85, with Vosotros scoring 15 points for PEA on 6-of-8 shooting.
Seven days later, Koa and a certain Poh Wei Hao allegedly offered Vosotros $1,000 to arrange for PEA to lose to Mono Vampire. PEA ended up losing, 84-76, with Vosotros finishing with eight points on 4-of-9 shooting.
Finally, Koa and Poh allegedly offered Vosotros $1,500 to help ensure that the July 8 game between PEA and Hi Tech Assumption Thonburi would end with both clubs combining to score under 165 points. A quick check of the TBL league records, though, showed that PEA played Black Scorpions on that date, with PEA winning 99-73.