Chapter 34: The Terror Referee

The team Madtaks has decided to get more sepak takraw experience by playing against the street players. This is despite the negative feedbacks expressed by Ferdy according to what he witnessed.

They took a jeepney in route to the central plaza of the town of Madridejos. In just 20 minutes, the crew has finally arrived at the lively town.

The central plaza was a wide space not far away from the biggest catholic church of the island. At the center of the beautiful plaza was a huge statue of Mother Mary and many people hang around for fresh air while others are on their date. Street vendors are not allowed inside the plaza so people have to grab their food from someone. It is also one of the reasons why Chiko doesn't like the place. As a natural born-merchant, he feels like he is being descriminated with the plaza's no-vendor policy.

The team entered the plaza with a mixture of excitement and nervous feeling. Mark and Yang scanned the place with great anticipation. While Chiko on the other hand was feeling like he was being gutted as he looked at the potential customer of the said place.

A few meters away from the center, at the right side of the plaza when facing south, are three different courts for different sports that the public can use. There was a big court for basketball, a medium court for volleyball, and a smaller space for sepak takraw at the end.

Both volleyball and basketball was naturally a popular sports in the Philippines so it was normal to have plenty of people spectating. But ever since the popularity of sepak takraw due to the absurd legend Santi showed, sepak takraw was quickly gaining even more popularity than the said two sports.

Not to mention, the flashy kicks and crispy sound of the takraw ball were a good attention grabber as well.

Chiko and the team arrived at the sepak takraw court which was filled by numerous spectators on the side. There happens to be two teams currently battling each other at the moment and it seems it was about to end. There were loud shouts and cheers from the players and the spectators alike.

Chiko and the rest was immediately curious at the current situation.

WHAPAANG!~

PAAHK!~

It was a loud crisp sound from a horse kick spike, unfortunately it was successfully blocked by the defending players on the other side.

"Touch net! Score goes for the side of Team BAGSIK!" the referee called an unexpected fault. The crowd goes wild at the sudden change while Chiko and Gantes looked at each other with confused expression.

They both saw how it happened so they were pretty sure that the defending player blocked the spike successfully. It was a clean block with not a single strand of their body touching the net. But the ref still called it touch net eitherway.

"I told you already, their rules here are fishy. That referee is a bias one. Always deciding in favor towards the local street players" Ferdy quickly filled in his confused friends.

"Touch net!? Seriously?"

"What do you mean touch net!? It was a clean block dude!"

"Come on bro. This is the fourth time you are cheating us with your absurd decisions. How are we supposed to win with your stupid calls?"

The three defending players came forward to complain at the referee at the middle. The referee looked back with a faint mockery in his smile. He has a solid and tall build like that of a street brawler. One of his eyes had a black patch giving him an even menacing look. Unfortunately, the player's complain fell to nothing but deaf ears.

"If you have complain then get your own referee. That is if you have what it takes to replace me. Hehe" the referee would casually reply from time to time.

The score was already 17 against 20 in favor of the home team, also known as team Bagsik. The players from the other side are actually sepak takraw players from Cebu who happened to pass by during their Bantayan island vacation. They have absolutely no idea about the dubious style of the street takraw players, only learning about it as they played.

While it was not new seeing referees making favorable decisions for the home team, the decisions made by the current refs were just absurd. Making false accusations despite how clean the players did. He calls inside balls as outbound, touch net and the list goes on.

"Why are they letting that stupid referee ruining this game? Can't they pick a better one somewhere?" Mark grumbled as he watched the commotion from the side.

"Unfortunately no. I heard that the referee is a terror guy. He is famously known as Kayong - a gang leader and sepak takraw enthusiast. Most of the spectating people nearby are actually members of his gang so all of his bad calls are being supported blindly by his followers."

"And if the other side refused to accept?" Mark asked with a frown.

"Kayong will take them somewhere hidden to a so-called 'clarification'. They get beaten and made to accept the decisions." Ferdy replied while clenching his fist.

"What about the police? Don't tell me the laws don't apply to these guys?" Chiko asked.

"I heard that the chief of police in this town is actually Kayong's uncle. Not a single complaint against his nephew was even for a long time. That is why this place is basically under their control.

"Sounds like it's really their turf huh...."

It took a while before the commotion in the middle settled. The referee never reversed his unfavorable decisions and remained undaunted. The foreign players hesitantly gave up after getting constant warnings and threat stares from the local horde.

"Let's go. It's just another game and we can just earn the money anyway. Look at these people, they are obviously on his side so we might just get pummeled without realizing who hits who." one of the foreign players told his fellow, angry members.

On the other side, the moment the foreign players left, a sinister smile crept onto the creepy face of the one-eyed referee. It was an easy day for easy money. The players who fought against the foreign player casually gave him a couple of paper bills as his part of the share - not minding the eyes watching them with distrusting gazes. The amount was actually 30% of the total amount won.

Seeing these, Chiko's eyes glowed like that of a crow, "Wow this is a good business..."

"Indeed, it's a total scam," Ferdy murmured his reply.

"The referee looks familiar though..." Mark mumbled softly as he tried to recall the familiar figure of the referee before him.

Now that the sepak takraw court is cleared, a new group of players, who also seems to be members of the local takraw players under the terror referee, stood up in the middle.

"Whos up for a game? Just a friendly one of course. Nothing serious, just fun!" one of the players called out to the crowd. But despite the huge number of spectators, not a single team was willing to step out and play against their scam-like rules who only favor the local players.

"No one? Really? Are you all here just to look at my handsome face?"

Still, not a single team walked out to face them.

He happens to be someone familiar to Chiko and the others as he is also a student from the same institution. In fact, he was one of the criminology students who will face them at the coming school event. As he eyes Chiko and the rest, a wide confident smile quickly crept into his burly face.

"Look who do we have here! It's the MCC Teletubbies!" He loudly declared as people's gazes turned to Chiko and his team's direction. Getting taunted as Teletubbies was something that puts a frown on Mark and Ferdy's faces.

"Who's Teletubbies? Is it a famous celebrity?" Chiko asked innocently.

"Don't you have at least a TV back home?" Ferdy asked.

Chiko shook his head before smiling confidently,

"But we do have solar-powered FM and AM radio! Pretty cool huh? My grandma loved it cause she gets to listen to noon-time radio dramas. I bought it after I got a good sale from selling balut during the fiesta."

Mark and Ferdy looked at each other before turning back to Chiko.

"Have you been living in the mountains all this time? Who still listens to the radio when we already have phones?" Mark said, a little disbelieving.

Chiko just nodded in reponse.

"Are you Teletubbies just gonna chat or do you wanna play?" getting irritated as he was being ignored, the criminology student inside the takraw court beckoned.

"Of course we are here to play!" Chiko stepped out after being called. Seeing him walking, Mark also followed without thinking. But before they could continue further, Ferdy's hand quickly grabbed them back.

"Are you guys crazy?! Don't you still get it? This whole game is a scam. The referee will just scam us out to defeat no matter how much we try!" Ferdy explained with his veins almost popping out.

"So?"

Chiko and Mark looked back without a trace of fear. Chiko tapped Ferdy's shoulder and calmly replied,

"I thought we are here to experience street sepak takraw? Who cares about winning or losing? Let's just have fun!"

"He is right. I think that is what truly matters. We can't let a stupid referee stop us from enjoying this game." Mark supported Chiko's point.

"Not to mention, he said it will be a friendly game!" Chiko added.

Their reply struck Ferdy like a lightning bolt. Indeed, they came here to experience it. Who cares about winning or losing? They might lose these games because of the referee's unfavorable decisions. After all, their aim was higher than their today's result. To play against the street style takraw, will give them a broader perspective and could potentially aid them in refining their play as well.

With that in mind, Ferdy stepped out too.

"Who cares about winning or losing? We are just here to experience and have fun!" he thought to himself.

And with that, the team Madtaks stood on the other side of the court. They will be facing a group of athletic-looking street players with the criminology student as their captain.

"Ooh. A new challenger?"

"Those school uniforms, are they from MCC?"

Do they even know who they are facing? Poor kids. Easy money to mister Terroree!"

The crowd was curious and at the same time, excited at the new faces who entered the court. It seems to be another team that is about to get stomped by their local players.