All’s well that ends well.
San Miguel stalwarts Danny Ildefonso and Marc Pingris had buried the hatchet with the fan they tried to assault last week in Game 2 of the Motolite-PBA Fiesta Cup Finals after all the parties involved personally met and apologized to one another last Wednesday.
Upon the intercession of PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios, Ildefonso and Pingris got a chance to talk and say sorry to the Barangay Ginebra fan identified as Ferdinand Nervandez.
Nervandez himself initiated the move after learning from newspaper reports that the two San Miguel superstars and team management offered their apology to him.
A businessman from Malabon, the 40-year-old Nervandez admitted he deserved a share of the blame for the incident, the reason he arranged a meeting with Barrios together with PBA operations and technical director Rickie Santos at a coffee shop just across Araneta Coliseum hours before Game 4 of the PBA Finals.
When finally they settled down, Barrios called up SMB team manager Hector Calma asking the former cage great to see him at the coffee shop along with Ildefonso and Pingris.
In a short while, Calma and his two wards arrived and Barrios introduced them to Nervandez.
Barrios said Ildefonso, Pingris and Nervandez were all apologetic about the incident and promised one another what they did would never happen again.
“Parang nabunutan ako ng tinik sa lalamunan," said Ildefonso of his meeting with Nervandez. “Nagpapasalamat ako kay commissioner Sonny dahil naging daan siya para makahingi ako ng sorry sa kamaliang nagawa ko doon sa fan."
“What he did was kind of a noble act," said Barrios of Nervandez’s gesture. “Hindi madali yung ginawa niya. But he felt he had also wronged Danny I and wanted to apologize."
Barrios said an apologetic Nervandez requested him to arrange the meeting with Ildefonso so he could apologize.
Nervandez told the commissioner the incident would not have happened had he not agitated Ildefonso with offensive gestures, an act that provoked the two-time league MVP, together with Pingris, to attack him in the stands.
Ildefonso and Pingris were both fined P30,000 and P10,000, respectively, by Barrios for their acts. Both likewise served a one-game suspension.
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