Millennium's 1st megadeal

Barangay Ginebra and Sta. Lucia Realty, both aiming to make a big turnaround and create impact in the new decade, closed a megadeal yesterday, trading ace players Marlou Aquino and Jun Limpot.

The two teams actually traded only signing rights to both players but the parties involved see no problem in having their respective contracts sealed.

Ginebra and Sta. Lucia had talked to the players before completing the trade and the ballclubs agreed to a P30-million contract each for Aquino and Limpot.

It was a homecoming of sorts for Aquino and Limpot as they returned to the fold of the ballclubs that nurtured their amateur careers. They were to get a guaranteed monthly pay of P500,000 -- the maximum allowed by the league -- in the next five years.

It will be remembered that Aquino played for Sta. Lucia while Limpot for Magnolia -- sister company of Ginebra -- in the Philippine Basketball League.

Limpot, a Centennial teamer considered by many as an under-achiever for failing to lead Sta. Lucia to the finals even once in his seven-year stay in the ballclub, earlier turned down a two-year, P12-million offer by his former team with hopes of getting a longer term in the pact.

Aquino, on the other hand, had said he wanted out of Ginebra because of differences with the new team management.

Coming a day after Ginebra tendered a three-year, P9.3-million offer sheet to Purefoods' EJ Feihl, the trade also involved Benny Cheng and Banjo Calpito. Sta. Lucia assumed Cheng's existing contract with Ginebra while the La Tondeña franchise gained the signing rights to Calpito.

Meanwhile, Vintage Television chairman Carlos "Bobong" Velez said they have submitted to the PBA board a performance bond of P230 million and an IBC 13 board resolution, confirming airtime commitment to PBA games from year 2000-2002.

Velez also said the Vintage consortium, which emerged with the winning bid for the exclusive broadcast rights of the PBA, is now set to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission with a trade name Viva Vintage Inc.

This developed even as GMA 7 questioned the documents submitted by VTV to the PBA.

Moments after Vintage came up with the IBC 13 board resolution yesterday, GMA Marketing sent a letter to the PBA board, saying what VTV submitted was a mere "paper resolution."

GMA Marketing executive vice president Bobby Barreiro charged that no IBC 13 board meeting was held, thus no valid board resolution can be adopted. He added that four directors didn't sign the "paper board resolution passed around yesterday."

"No valid board resolution can be adopted by the IBC board without holding an actual board meeting where the issues could be discussed among the directors before the board members could vote on the proposed resolution," said Barreiro.

Velez said he's dumbfounded by GMA 7's continued attack "because I thought we're on friendly terms and they were even warm when they congratulated us after the announcement of the winning bidder." -