Alas Pilipinas women celebrate a point during the AVC Nations Cup semifinals against Chinese Taipei. The Filipinos advanced to the final. –AVC PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Newly elected Philippine National Volleyball Federation president Tonyboy Liao said the PNVF had already submitted 14 players in the entry by number and entry by name for the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand last September in time for the deadline.
According to Liao, the final line-up submitted under the previous administration headed by outgoing president Tats Suzara is composed of core players led by team captain Jia De Guzman, Angel Canino, Shaina Nitura, Eya Laure, Vanie Gandler, Bella Belen, Dell Palomata, Alleiah Malaluan, Leila Cruz, and Dawn Macandili-Catindig. Brooke Van Sickle also made the cut, even amid her ongoing federation transfer from USA Volleyball to PNVF.
READ: Tonyboy Liao named new PNVF president, replacing Tats Suzara
“I don’t know if all of you are aware, but the Southeast Asian Games organizing committee has a deadline for submitting the entry by name. First, it’s entry by number, then entry by name. The deadline for that was last September,” said Liao in Filipino after being elected as the new federation chief for 2025-28.
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“They already submitted 14 names. I have a copy, but I don’t want to show it to you yet. I already know who will play there, so they also know who the 14 are. So why would you force everyone to train [from the 20-player pool]?” added Liao.
Suzara bared the 20-player pool less than a month ago.
“They were saying it’s because someone might get injured, or this or that might happen. But once you submit the entry by name, the only time you can replace an injured player is during the general technical meeting of managers at the SEA Games. That’s the rule. So if a player isn’t injured, you can’t replace them. That’s how it works,” he added.
Liao was also befuddled as to why Van Sickle was included on the list despite still not being eligible to play.
“They listed her even though they know she can’t play because her federation is still the USA. That’s what’s really strange. They know the rules—so why try to twist things? You line her up, knowing she can’t play. That’s what’s really going on there,” he said.
READ: PVL players free to join Alas but stay with clubs until exit
Liao said it’s sad that the team has yet to train at full capacity, but he understands the discretion of the PVL clubs to focus on the ongoing Reinforced Conference as they have been lending the players during the national calendar period for the past two years.
The professional volleyball league has also been supportive of the PNVF since 2022, while the Spikers’ Turf — also organized by Sports Vision — released the Alas players for the Taiwan training camp.
“First of all, we have an agreement with the PVL. We can’t release all the players at once because the Reinforced Conference is happening right now,” said Liao.
“We asked the club teams if they could lend us their national team players. We proposed that they could practice from Sunday to Monday. Some club teams agreed, saying, ‘Okay, whoever our players are, they can train Sunday and Monday.’”
But with other teams getting eliminated and the Reinforced heading into its last three playdates, the preparations for the SEA Games will go into full swing.
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Liao added the new board will coordinate with the outgoing officials regarding the upcoming SEA Games stint since the latter are the ones who started the program.