PBA player in ‘spit tilt’ in Cebu City

CEBU CITY — Jason Webb has flown back to Manila, away from the controversy he helped generate, leaving it up to his Cebuano friends to explain the hotel fray he got involved in.

And a lot of explaining his friend Adrian Ding did, straight from his hospital bed where he was confined following the fray at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel in the wee hours of Saturday.

It was an exchange of spits between Tanduay pointguard Jason Webb and Prince Warehouse Club owner Nelson Go at first but degenerated into a fistfight, Ding said in a press conference he called yesterday.

Ding said he, with Webb and several others in his car, was maneuvering a hump on the ramp toward the hotel entrance when Go in the car following them kept honking his horn.

Seconds later, Ding’s car, a blue Nissan Sentra 1981 model, got bumped in the rear by Go’s car.

Go, according to Ding, then said there should be no problem about the incident because his insurance company will take care of any damages to Ding’s car.

The group of Ding then asked for Go’s name and his phone number but Go allegedly snapped "you don’t know me? Everybody knows me in Cebu."

Go then went back to his car and was preparing to leave when Webb, not wanting him to get away without settling the matter of damages, blocked Go from entering his car by placing his left foot on the car door.

But Go pushed the car door so Webb lost his foothold on the vehicle.

By this time, Channel V video jockey Claudine Trillo, Webb’s girlfriend, asked Go why he acted so arrogantly when he was the one who caused the incident.

At this, Go allegedly hurled expletives at Trillo, provoking Webb into spitting at the businessman, soiling him on the left chest.

Ding said after Webb spat at Go, the businessman retaliated by also spitting at the basketball player. Webb then threw the first punch at Go, hitting him in the face. Go punched back but failed to hit Webb.

Go’s friends, including radioman Choy Torralba, later arrived and asked Ding if he was the driver of the Nissan.

Ding claims that after he answered Torralba in the affirmative, the radioman punched him on the chest and threw an elbow at his face.

Ding said his parents had him taken to a private hospital after he complained of chest pains and swelling of the face. — Freeman News Service