Arboleda wants forfeited pay for flood victims

MANILA, Philippines - Burger King guard Wynne Arboleda, suspended without pay for the rest of the PBA season, won’t mind if the Whoppers management donates the P2.73 million salary he’s not able to receive to the flood victims of Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

Invited as guest for the UST Varsitarian’s “Inkblots” national journalism fellowship at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex last Friday, Arboleda told 251 campus writers from 31 schools all over the country he would gladly donate his forfeited wages.

Arboleda, 32, said the suspension is a big blow to his family, particularly as basketball is his main means of livelihood. The night of the horrid incident where he assaulted a fan Alain Katigbac in his first-row seat during a game against Smart-Gilas at the Araneta Coliseum last Oct. 16, Arboleda said he went home and cried to his wife April Rose.

And when PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios announced his suspension last Monday, Arboleda said it felt like his whole world had collapsed.

“I come from a poor family,” said Arboleda, two-time Defensive Player of the Year and No. 11 in the PBA’s all-time steals honor roll. “My father (Diolito) was a tricycle driver in Kalibo where I was born. My mother (Gloria) worked as a labandera (washerwoman). Basketball was my way out of poverty.”

Arboleda said after finishing a two-year course in Marine Transportation in Kalibo in 1997, an Aklan provincemate Boni Garcia recruited him to play for the Manuel L. Quezon University varsity in Manila. Garcia was the MLQU coach and Arboleda remembered playing two years with teammates like Arnold Calo, Melvin Taguines and Val Domingo.

“I’m the youngest of six children and my three brothers and I all played varsity basketball,” he said. “My brother Willie played for Adamson and Perpetual. My two other brothers played in Kalibo. I started playing when I was five. I thought of being a seaman, like my brother, but I wanted to make basketball my career. It’s the only way I could think of being successful and I love the game.”

From MLQU, Arboleda moved to the MBA with the Laguna Lakers then landed a job with Pop Cola in the PBA in 2000. From Pop Cola, Arboleda went to Tanduay and wound up with Fed-Ex (later Air21 and now, Burger King). His contract with Burger King expires in 2011.

“When I was suspended without pay, my wife asked if we would push through with our plans to celebrate our two children’s birthdays coming up,” he said. “Our son Alwyn is turning two on the 26th and our daughter Andy will be seven next month. We had a budget set aside for their birthday parties. I told her we won’t disappoint the kids. We’ll check how much we’ve saved in the bank.”

Arboleda said his priority is to provide for his family.

“I know basketball is not forever,” he said. “It has an ending. I’ve tried to prepare for life after basketball by putting up a taxi business. I have five taxis. There is pressure on me to make a living. I’ve asked my wife to be strong for me. I know this is a test from God but I also know God will take care of our family.”

Arboleda said he’s hoping and praying that something positive will come out of this trial in his life.

“Before, I used to go to Mass only every Sunday,” he said. “Now, I go to church everyday to pray. I don’t go anywhere else. I just stay home. I don’t read the papers and I don’t watch the news on TV. It’s not that I’m trying to escape from reality. I just want to spare my family from all the negative news about me.”

Arboleda, who has issued a public apology for his condemnable act, said defending the honor of his parents, particularly his mother, is something he will take to his grave.

“My mother suffered a stroke in 2000 and I brought her from Kalibo to Manila for treatment because she was half-paralyzed and couldn’t talk,” said Arboleda. “She had another stroke, went into coma and died in 2005. Two years ago, my sister Angelita died of tuberculosis and when I was playing for the national team at the Jones Cup in Taipei last June, my father passed away due to complications in the heart and kidney. Nearly all my savings went to paying for their medical and funeral expenses. Whatever I had left, I put in my taxi business. That’s why I’ll always defend the honor of my parents - I love them very much. I would sacrifice all over again for them.”

Arboleda said he has no immediate plans of filing an appeal before Barrios.

“I’ll try to stay in shape by playing with my teammates at practice,” said Arboleda. “There is a reason for everything and God will show me the way to come back.”

Arboleda said since his suspension, he has been invited to appear in Lucy Torres’ show “Shall We Dance” on TV and asked to help out in the Red Cross by Sen. Richard Gordon. Not too many fans know that the day before the Gilas game, Arboleda was in Muntinlupa distributing relief goods to flood victims.

“My reputation is I’m tough on the court but outside the court, I’m a guy whom if you get to know closely, you’ll want to be my textmate,” Arboleda told the “Inkblots” conferees. “At home, I spend my time playing with the kids and watching movies on DVD. I’m ‘under sa bahay.’”

Arboleda appealed to fans to understand that players are also human. “We make mistakes, too,” he said. “It’s hard to turn away from fans who are cursing your family, especially your mother. I don’t mind the insults to me but I hope the PBA does something about fans who become too personal.”