With the impending exclusion of basketball from the Southeast Asian Games Rep. Monico Puentevella yesterday urged the country's sports leaders to make a concerted effort in realizing the next important task at hand: winning the SEA Games overall crown.

"Enough is enough. We have exhausted all efforts on this matter. We are all to blame," the Bacolod solon said yesterday, just days after a Manila court ruled that the Philippine Olympic Committee's decision to boot out the Basketball Association of the Philippines from its roster in Sports Association.

Puentevella, the POC first vice-president, said there is a remote possibility of having basketball in the biennial meet.

"Let's just concentrate on the other 400 golds at stake. Basketball is not the SEA Games," he said, adding that the scrapping of basketball from the SEAG calendar might be a blessing in disguise so other sports fit for Filipinos may also hug the limelight.

Puentevella, the chef de mission of the RP SEA Games delegation here, also called on BAP president Joey Lina to make the supreme sacrifice of accepting the POC decision and ask FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann to lift the suspension of the Philippines and pave the way for the staging of basketball in the biennial meet.*CPT

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