‘Spider-Man’ breaks silence; asks PBA to drop Tubid, Nabong penalties

Delfin Dioquino

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

‘Spider-Man’ breaks silence; asks PBA to drop Tubid, Nabong penalties
Paolo Felizarta admits there would not have been a commotion had he not stormed the court and inadvertently hurt June Mar Fajardo

MANILA, Philippines – The ‘Spider-Man’ who disrupted Game 5 of the 2019 Philippine Cup has broken his silence, pleading to PBA commissioner Willie Marcial to drop the penalties against Ronald Tubid and Kelly Nabong. 

Paolo Felizarta admitted there would not have been a commotion had he not stormed the court of the Araneta Coliseum and inadvertently hurt reigning five-time MVP June Mar Fajardo while running. 

In retaliation for their teammate, Tubid punched Felizarta when he was being escorted out of the court while Nabong was believed to have physically hurt Flenn John Lola, who was assumed to be the accomplice. 

The two San Miguel players were fined P75,000 and suspended for 3 games each while assistant team manager Daniel Henares and team doctor Ramon Ibanez were fined P50,000 and suspended for two games each. 

Ang pinakamali lang po talaga doon, mabilis ‘yung nangyari, walang time makapag-unawan so nakagawa tayo ng mga bagay na hindi natin gusto rin,” Felizarta said in a series of videos on his Youtube channel

(Everything happened so fast that there was no time to process what occured so we did things that we did not want.) 

Walang may gusto noon. Wala naman pong nasaktan so gusto ko po, commissioner, sa totoo lang po, gusto ko po talaga matanggal ‘yung sanction.” 

(Nobody wanted that to happen. Nobody was hurt so I just want, commissioner, for the sanctions to be dropped.) 

Spending almost a week in jail after the PBA pressed charges against him, Felizarta said he had already reflected on his act and what transpired after that.

Ako po ‘yung may dahilan kung bakit nangyari ‘yun. Ako po ‘yung nag-start, ako ang nag-initiate, ako ‘yung nag-disrespect,” he said. 

(I was the cause of what happened. I started it, I initiated it, I was the one who disrespected the game.) 

Nire-respect ko po ‘yung desisyon niyo pero sa akin po, hindi ko po gusto mangyari ‘yun sa kanila. Sana po maunawaan niyo na lang po na bugso lang po ng damdamin.” 

(I respect your decision to send me to jail but I don’t want that to happen to them. I hope you understand that what they did was just in the heat of the moment.) 

Although hindi ko kasalanan ‘yung reaction niyo, but I am the one who initiated all of those. Kung wala ako, walang ganoon.” 

(Although it wasn’t my fault that they reacted that way, I was the one who initiated all of those. If I wasn’t there, nothing would happen.) 

Akala ko kasi puwede lang akong makulong, magpapakulong lang ako okay na, pero hindi, nakokonsensiya ako eh.”

(I thought it would all be okay after I spent some time in jail but my conscience is bothering me.) 

Felizarta also confessed that Lola was indeed a friend after initially saying he did not know him to protect him. 

Hindi ko gusto makaganoon sa kapuwa. Hindi ko naisip. Hindi nasagi sa utak ko kasi hindi po ako tatalon kung ganoon po ang puwedeng mangyari.” 

(I didn’t want to hurt other people. It didn’t cross my mind. If I knew it would turn out that way, I wouldn’t have jumped from where I was seated to do the act.) 

Using his Spider-Man persona to send a message of love, Felizarta hopes everyone learned from the incident. 

We are all capable of love, loving. Sana ‘yun ‘yung maging common denominator natin para magkaunawaan.” 

(We are all capable of love and loving. I wish that becomes the common denominator for us to understand each other.) – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!
Person, Human, Clothing

author

Delfin Dioquino

Delfin Dioquino dreamt of being a PBA player, but he did not have the skills to make it. So he pursued the next best thing to being an athlete – to write about them. He took up journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and joined Rappler as soon as he graduated in 2017.