By Ronnie Nathanielsz

PHILIPPINE National Team coach Yeng Guiao is furious over the last-minute cancellation of his team?s two-game series against the Puerto Rican champion club team Capitanes de Aracibo scheduled for Feb. 21 and 24.

Guiao was upset over the fact that the all-pro national team had called off a series of games in Qatar for the chance to play the Puerto Rican squad, which won the Puerto Rican League?s National Superior Basketball championships in a seven-game series last year.

He accused one or two Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas officials, who arranged the Puerto Rican games, of ?disrupting our preparations and sabotaging our national team.?

Standard Today learned that a certain Jennifer Hernandez, who handles SBP operations, sent an e-mail to Renato ?Botong? Chavez last Friday at 5:45 p.m., informing him that the Puerto Rican?s games against the National Team had been called off.

Chavez didn?t receive the e-mail since he was attending the practice of the RP team at The Arena in San Juan despite the fact that it was also his birthday. Chavez is the RP Team liaison officer and operations officer of the Philippine Basketball Association.

Top officials of the PBA, led by commissioner Sonny Barrios, executive director Ricky Santos and media bureau chief Willie Marcial, were not even given the courtesy of being informed of the cancellation, revealing a serious lapse in procedure if not protocol.

In fact, during a press conference Monday in Bacolod City, where the Annual All-Star games will be held, commissioner Barrios announced the holding of the pocket tournament, which would involve the Puerto Rican champions, the Philippine National Team and the national training pool of the SBP under coach Rajko Toroman of Serbia. He was surprised and embarrassed when informed later that the games had been called off.

Sanchez said that when he reported to the PBA office on Monday and called Hernandez to ask about the responsibilities of the pro league for the Puerto Rican games, he was informed that the Puerto Rican team was not coming since they apparently refused to pay their roundtrip airfare, which Capitanes de Arcibo expected the SBP to shoulder.

SBP executive director Noli Eala, the former PBA commissioner, was also reportedly recruiting Western Kentucky University and former Ateneo center Japeth Aguilar to join the Toroman pool rather than the PBA national team, after Guiao had already spoken to the player?s father, former PBA player Peter Aguilar.