Dindin Santiago-Manabat assures Chery Tiggo full commitment despite Thailand stint

Dindin Santiago-Manabat will remain fully committed to her mother club Chery Tiggo despite inking a deal to play as import for Nakhon Ratchasima in the Volleyball Thailand League.

Crossovers team manager Ronwald Dimaculangan confirmed a Facebook post by the team, which was eventually taken down on Thursday, that the 6-foot-2 open spiker is set to bring her acts overseas.

With the move, Santiago-Manabat will reunite with her teammate Mylene Paat who is currently reinforcing the Thai club.

"Yes it's true. Actually everything happened so fast because the deal was just confirmed probably yesterday at 6 p.m.," Dimaculangan said on Friday.

"Chery Tiggo has been supportive of our players and if an opportunity will be for their growth, then we will be supporting them."

The offer was actually first presented to Santiago-Manabat late last December but the former National University standout initially declined it, citing her commitment to Chery Tiggo.

But when Nakhon Ratchasima made another offer just two weeks ago, Chery Tiggo finally gave a green light to Santiago-Manabat as she assured the club to remain available whenever the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) returns.

"The backstory of the negotiation was they were really pursuing Dindin since December but during the time, Dindin begged off already because of her commitment to Chery," the official added.

"We thought that the negotiation was already called but then two weeks ago, Nakhon communicated with us again."

Dimaculangan said Santiago-Manabat and Paat, both of whom were instrumental in the team's championship run during the 2021 Open Conference, will be playing once the league resumes in March.

"Nakhon communicates with us and not directly to the players. So the system is that they will only borrow the players and the good thing is that the Thai league's calendar is not in conflict with our calendar," Dimaculangan said. — LA, GMA News