Pangilinan appoints Moreno, Puentevella as cage advisers
By Julius Manicad
06/09/2008
The possible entry of Oscar Moreno and Monico Puentevella in the central board of BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) created a stir in the general membership of the cage body, prompting its president, Manny Pangilinan, to clarify that the two politicians, are out to stand as his advisers and not as official members of the 25-man board of trustees.
The appointment of Moreno and Puentevella as chairman and vice-chairman of the soon-to-be formed SBP advisory council would be formalized when the embattled cage group elects its first set of permanent officers on June 12 at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City.
The occasion also marks the formal appointment of Liga Pilipinas founder and former Philippine Basketball Association commissioner Noli Eala as SBP executive director replacing Patrick Gregorio who resigned in the wake of the Philippine Team’s forgettable finish in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (Seaba) Champions Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The formation of an advisory council with Moreno and Puentevella on top and the appointment of Eala, however, would only be possible if Pangilinan wins a fresh four-year term, a looming possibility since no one is expected to challenge his attempt to retain his post. After all, appointing the executive director is the prerogative of the president and not by the SBP board.
Pangilinan has also relayed already his plan of assembling an advisory council to the powerful SBP board and, according to a highly-reliable source, he got an overwhelming approval.
The source also revealed that Pangilinan decided to tap basketball newcomers Moreno and Puentevella to be his chief advisers to assemble a potent political force that will challenge the tandem of Prospero Pichay and Luis Villafuerte who have already declared themselves as the “more legitimate SBP” through the virtue of the Bangkok agreement and the support fo 67 cage associations which graced their election last week.
Although Misamis Oriental Governor Moreno and Bacolod Representative Puentevella have never been associated with BAP-SBP before, they are able politicians who can easily reach out to the politically-inclined duo of Pichay and Villafuerte. Pichay is a former Surigao del Sur representative and a losing senatorial candidate while Villafuerte is the incumbent Camarines Sur representative.
Puentevella, also the first vice president of the Philippine Olympic Committee, has yet to be informed of his possible nomination, but expressed readiness in bridging the gap between Pangilinan and the group of Pichay and Villafuerte.
In a press briefing last week, Pichay stressed that the Bangkok agreement forged between the erstwhile warring BAP and Pilipinas Basketball that led to the creation of the SBP early last year states that all the 80 stakeholders recognized in the Tokyo communique will constitute the general membership of the merger. And since they have already clinched the support of 67 members, Pangilinan’s SBP will hold its national congress without a quorum for having only 13 members.
But the source just laughed off the claim, saying that most of the members of the Pichay bloc are bogus and fly-by-night leagues who did not make the stringent, year-long validation process conducted by the SBP’s nominations and elections committee headed by Eliezar Capacio. Capacio recognized only 19 groups which will comprise the 25-man board that will elect the new SBP president.
Pangilinan refused to reveal the composition of the new set of board of trustees with the source claiming that he is keeping it close to his chest to make sure that everything will go on as planned heading into their national congress.
Originally Posted by KABAW
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