The Far Eastern University now plan to press charges against James Machate after FEU and Cha Dao owner James Marcaida convened following their split in the 2019 PBA D-League.
Tamaraws team manager Richie Ticzon made a clarification that the university is now filing a class suit against Machate and not versus the milk tea brand as what they planned to do initially.
“After talking to the real owner, sir Jed Marcaida, James Machate is not a part owner of Cha Dao which he is trying to portray,” Ticzon said.
“Machate gave FEU a check worth 1,500,000 for FEU’s D-League participation as Cha Dao, but the check bounced. Apparently, Machate also got 550,000 from Cha Dao to help with its tie up with FEU. Cha Dao never agreed to sponsor FEU fully. It was Machate who came to FEU to fully fund its D-League campaign,” he continued.
“To cut the long story short, it was James Machate who is liable to FEU for its 1.5-million bouncing check.”
Based on Ticzon’s account, Machate was the middleman that brokered the deal between Cha Dao and FEU. Moreover, he alleges that FEU and Cha Dao had no partnership whatsoever outside of what Machete told both parties.
Ticzon said that they have not heard from Machate since the checks bounced, prompting the school to drop the partnership with Cha Dao six games into the 2019 D-League season.
FEU started playing as the Tamaraws last May 7 against the Diliman College-Gerry’s Grill which they won, 88-81. There was no longer any indication of the Cha Dao sponsorship in the team.
“He never talked to us anymore,” Ticzon said.
Now that the school and the milk tea company have sorted things out, Ticzon has issued an apology to Cha Dao and Marcaida for putting the brand in bad light due to this issue.
“We are clearing Cha Dao’s name in this issue and apologize to them for the negative write-up that came out,” he said.
“It is James Machate who didn’t fulfill his obligations to FEU.”
