6 Pinoy chess players in game-fixing suspended

The National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) has suspended six players — three of them international masters — for involvement in game fixing in local and international tournaments. In a press statement released on Wednesday, the NCFP said that international master Ronald Dableo was banned for a year. The move was the result of a unanimous decision by the NCFP executive board to slap the suspension on the erring players who were implicated in game-fixing scandals. Aside from Dableo, the five other players who were suspended for six months were IM Chito Garma, IM Darwin Laylo, Oliver Barbosa, Merben Roque, and lone female player Enerose Magno. The suspension order was signed by NCFP president and Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr. "Acting on the recommendation of the Internal Affairs Committee, headed by former Benguet Gov. Raul Molintas, the NCFP resolved to suspend all the six players starting 27 February," said NCFP secretary-general and Tagaytay City Mayor Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino in the official statement. The other two members of the NCFP Internal Affairs Committee were lawyer Edmundo Legaspi and Manny Benitez, adviser of the Chess Journalists Association of the Philippines (CJAP). In a separate statement, Mayor Tolentino said the NCFP hopes that the players would learn their lesson well from this suspension. Copies of the suspension order, he said, would be sent to the FIDE (International Chess Federation) and all other NCFP-affiliated clubs. "It's really a difficult decision (to suspend the players), but we have to do it for the sake of chess," added Tolentino in the separate statement. Dableo, one of the country's three representatives in the last Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, received the harshest punishment from the NCFP Board. Dableo, who will turn 27 on March 11, was banned for one year after the NCFP established his involvement in game-fixing a tournament in Vietnam last year. Garma, Laylo, Babrosa, Roque, and Magno were suspended for their roles in game-fixing activities in other tournaments last year. Several other players also implicated in game-fixing charges are still being investigated by the NCFP committee. - GMANews.TV