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PBA CHAIRMAN ROBERT NON EXPLAINS RE-HIRING OF LEAGUE MARKETING DIRECTOR By Ronnie Nathanielsz PhilBoxing.com Sat, 12 Mar 2016 Robert Non. PBA chairman Robert Non of San Miguel Corporation has sought to justify the decision of 10 members of the 12-man board of governors with one abstention (the newest member Phoenix Fuel Oils) and the principled refusal of Alaska governor Dickie Bachman to go along with the majority decision despite pleas for the Aces governor to help make the re-hiring of Rhose Montreal as Marketing Director a unanimous one after her resignation was initially accepted by the board. This followed an expose by reporter Snow Badua who had earlier been banned from the PBA by Commissioner Chito Narvasa for his revelations regarding an indiscretion of governor Alfrancis Chua and a vilification campaign against the Ginebra governor. Badua?s expose concerning Monreal?s use of fake academic documents when she applied for the post of Marketing Director was confirmed by the Registrar of the University of the Philippines. In the midst of the controversy that has stirred critical comment from several individuals on the social media sites as well as former PBA chairman and Philippine Sportswriters Association Executive of the Year Fred Uytengsu, chairman Non provided The Standard with a statement on the issue through PBA Media Director Willie Marcial, ?for consideration.? In his statement Non said ?Rhose was accepted as a new hire due to humanitarian reasons (although the reasons were not specified) with heavy penalty.? Non revealed that Monreal ?has forfeited her nine years tenure and PBA retirement benefit (apparently amounting to P1 million) while her ?employment is back to day one? and is considered a ?new hire.? At the very outset let me make a few things clear regarding the growing controversy surrounding Rhose Montreal?s submission of falsified documents when she applied for the position some years ago. 1. I have nothing personal against Rhose who has been kind and friendly especially to Mayor Mario Raymundo and myself who watch the PBA games seated in the row in front of her. We engage in light banter and generally have fun. 2. To be honest, I have never liked reporter Snow Badua but will not condemn him as the messenger of damning news because his expose is based on evidence and verified facts. That?s what?s important. 3. To all those who condemn Commissioner Chito Narvasa unfairly, believing he was responsible for the re-hiring of Rhose Montreal, forget it. It was not the Commissioner but the PBA board of governors under chairman Robert Non of San Miguel Corporation who engineered the re-hiring with only a principled Alaska Aces franchise refusing to heed appeals to make the decision unanimous. The scandal could not have come at a worse time for the PBA as the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN which launched the very successful MBA but ultimately disbanded the league because of their huge financial outlay on the home-and-away format is now working closely with former national coach and a disciple of the late, great American coach Ron Jacobs Joe Lipa in the forefront of the establishment of a new league ? the Countrywide Basketball League which opens in mid-June. Joe has throughout his life stood as a beacon for unsullied integrity and his principled leadership in the new league contrasts sharply with the almost total erosion of integrity in the PBA, manifested by the PBA board decision to re-hire Montreal whose falsification of academic documents when applying for the job was perverse to say the least but we cannot totally condemn her if she needed the job badly and reportedly never stole a centavo from the PBA during what was an excellent performance where her sponsors had no complaints and were actually very supportive of Rhose. There were ?humanitarian? reasons which we would rather not get into just as we care less than a damn if her boyfriend is referee Aquino which is absolutely irrelevant. It's the PBA board of governors that we must blame because, by its actions it ruined whatever reputation the pro league earned through the years and in so doing set an example that perhaps mirrors the cancer of corruption and utter lack of decency and integrity that pervades Philippine society today. The effort to try and convince Alaska to join in the travesty was a sickening example of the erosion of time-honored values which, to the eternal credit of Fred Uytengsu and governor Dickie Bachman, refused to succumb to the importuning of the majority. The PBA board in a statement said that Rhose Montreal who had resigned after the scandal broke and whose resignation was accepted, had heeded her appeal, re-applying as Marketing Director of the PBA and that the board, ?in lengthy deliberations approved the hiring of Ms. Montreal primarily, among others, for humanitarian reasons and because of her exemplary performance.? Simply put it was the money she brought in which some claimed amounted to around P60 million a year which we gather was distributed among the teams. In short, money talks far more than it ever should which effectively adds corruption to the brazen lack of integrity. We are aware that falsifying records in private sector business may also result in some type of penalty and while a fraud charge is always possible whenever there is falsification of records, many times a company will handle a falsification of records claim, internally. That is probably where the PBA board anchored its deliberations on although we have steadfastly maintained through the years that the PBA may be a private association but it is one imbued with public interest since its primary source of income is from the ticket-buying public and sponsors who support the league?s TV coverage and its in-house promotional activities. When you look at the storied history of the PBA and compare the representatives on the board during the time of two esteemed commissioners ? the late Leo Prieto and our beloved friend and mentor Rudy Salud - to whom ?integrity was non-negotiable?, you see a perceptible decline in the quality of the men who sit on the board today with perhaps a couple of exceptions. It's very much like the Philippine Senate during the time of Jovito Salonga, Jose Diokno, Lorenzo Tanada. Arturo Tolentino, Lorenzo Sumulong, Jose Roy, Ferdinand Marcos, Ninoy Aquino, Doy Laurel and others whose intellectual brilliance far outshone the very best there is to offer today by light years! Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz. |
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