PBA eyes Batangas as option for training venue

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is on the lookout for possible places to hold team scrimmages, and they are now considering heading south to nearby Batangas.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said he will meet with officials from the Batangas City local government unit on Saturday to do an ocular inspection for training venues.

"As far as I know, there are wooden courts there, maybe teams and players can practice there," Marcial said in Filipino in a press conference on Thursday.

Batangas is currently under a less restrictive General Community Quarantine (GCQ).

Should the league hold practices there, Marcial said teams and players could go back to Manila with relatively short travel time since the trip going to the province takes just around an hour and a half.

The PBA will still allow teams to practice at locations of their choosing, as long as they will comply with the league's requirements such as permissions from different agencies of national government and local government units, and they will submitted their health protocols for training.

"If teams can find other venues where they can practice, that is also possible," Barangay Ginebra governor Alfrancis Chua said in Filipino.

Chua, who is also sports director of the San Miguel Corporation, said he will still talk to the three teams under their umbrella (Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, San Miguel Beermen, Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok) for their options for practices.

The league on Thursday also said Malacañang's pronouncement that the number of coronavirus cases should decline first before they will be allowed to restart. —Justin Kenneth Carandang/JMB, GMA News