Philippines have been re-awarded with the hosting rights and will be in charge of groups A, B, and C in the FIBA Qualifiers in a bubble setup in Clark, Pampanga.

Philippines is bracketed with Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand in Group A while Group B will be consisting of China, Japan, Chinese Taipei, and Malaysia; and Group C has Australia, New Zealand, Guam, and Hong Kong.

With the challenges caused by the pandemic, SBP president said that they are working hard with the preparation for the bubble while closely monitoring the situation.

“Although we’ve indicated to Fiba that times are very uncertain, we are committed. We’re fully committed to host in June,” Panlilio told Radyo5’s Power and Play with Noli Eala on Saturday.

Currently, Pampanga is placed under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) until April 30 and practices and games under the classification are allowed.

SBP is hoping that the same guidelines will remain until the qualifiers will take place in mid-June with a similar format from the PBA bubble being followed.

The federation will also be exerting its efforts in ensuring the safety of everyone and will be working closely with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases. 

“At the end of the day, our main priority is to keep everybody safe. Fiba has been strict and they require teams to be under quarantine before entering the bubble and they require testing before leaving [their countries] to make sure they’re safe. Medyo marami din yung papasok, so we have to make sure everybody is safe”,