THE PBA came to the aid of Barangay Ginebra rookie RJ Abarrientos amidst the alarming death threats he received and his family shortly after the Kings lost to the Meralco Bolts in Game 2 of their Commissioner's Cup quarterfinals.
Commissioner Willie Marcial said the league already coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe on the successive messages left by netizens on Abarrientos and his partner's social media account, threatening to gun them down after claiming losing a huge amount of money on bets following Ginebra's 108-104 loss Friday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
"Kino-ordinate na natin ito sa proper authority, in this case sa NBI. Kinausap na nila si RJ tungkol dito," said Marcial on Saturday.
"Pino-protektahan din naman natin yung mga player natin sa ganyang mga bagay."
Abarrientos began to receive the death threats just minutes after Meralco sent its best-of-three series against Barangay Ginebra to a sudden-death as the rookie guard missed a four-point shot in the Kings' final play that could have sent the game into overtime.
Sponsored content:
He finished with 12 points, three assists, and two steals.
But shortly after, Abarrientos' social media account began being swamped by threats from two netizens apparently using dummy accounts.
The 25-year-old guard, selected no. 3 overall pick by the Kings in the Season 49 draft, later posted about the psychological burden of dealing with the matter, while adding the screenshot of the messages sent to him below.
"Grabe talaga mga tao sa social media. Talo lang sa pusta, biglang death threats, pati pamilya dinadamay pa. Paki-report! Nakakaalarma na yung ganitong ugali," Abarrientos said on his Instagram story.
According to Marcial, Abarrientos was alarmed by the situation he told Barangay Ginebra management about it.
Sponsored content:
"Nagka-usap kami ng management ng Ginebra. And nagka-usap rin kami ni RJ," he said.
"Nabasa ko na yung messages. Nasa akin na, kaya nakipag-coordinate na rin tayo sa NBI."
The PBA expects the investigation to roll on anytime now.(RG)
