By Michael Angelo S. Murillo, Senior Reporter

WITH Metro Manila entering a general community quarantine (GCQ) setup on Monday, the Philippine Basketball Association is hoping that it would pave the way for more opportunities for it to ease its way back to the grind.

Following nearly three months of heightened restrictions because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) last week decided to downgrade, beginning June 1, conditions in the National Capital Region to GCQ, where certain restrictions are lowered.

These include allowing athletes and enthusiasts of individual sports to squeeze in some activities, provided certain health and safety protocols are followed.

Among the sports allowed to resume are running, biking, golf, swimming, tennis, badminton, equestrian and skateboarding.

Some forms of mass gatherings, too, are allowed as long as participants are accommodated in limited capacity to ensure that the potential to get COVID-19 would not be high, if not possible.

It is this turn of events that PBA is banking on as it angles to get back to some semblance of normalcy after shutting its activities in March when the highly contagious respiratory disease started to take further root in the country.

“This makes us optimistic that our teams can be allowed to return to the gym for individual workouts by shift,” PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial was quoted as saying in the official league Website on what they are immediately looking at with the easing of certain restrictions.

Mr. Marcial, however, said they recognize that there is still a long way to go from the league’s return to action but he expressed their readiness to comply with whatever government asks of organizations like them and do what is needed to ensure a successful restart.

“Slowly the plans of the government moving forward are being made known and the PBA is looking at that and working around it,” said Mr. Marcial.

The PBA said that it would make a final decision on the fate of Season 45 in August, believing that by that time there would be a clearer picture of the COVID-19 situation in the country.

But while the league is awaiting return to action, the PBA office has started operating after some time.

It does not have the full complement yet as it is still waiting the results of the COVID-19 testing done on its personnel at the weekend but nonetheless are bent on getting some work done in their push to resume activities.

This week the PBA Board of Governors is set to convene and craft the appropriate protocols for the league under the “new normal.”

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