Topnotch lawyer tries out for PBA refs’ pool

Imagine a lawyer, bar topnotcher at that, working as a referee in the Philippine Basketball Association.

A long shot?

It’s not, because that’s what Atty. Grainoil Uy Baysa-Pee is applying for -- to become a member of the pool of referees being assembled by new PBA commissioner Noli Eala for the league’s 2003 season set to start Feb. 23.

Baysa-Pee, a Quisumbing Torres Law Office associate lawyer, who ranked No. 10 out of the 3,978 examinees in the 1999 bar exams, is joining the second batch of aspirants taking the PBA officiating examination tomorrow at the PBA office inside the Ultra Complex in Pasig. The first batch took the exam Friday.

Nearly 80 persons applied to become PBA referees. PBA technical official Martinez said they will pick six to 10 qualified applicants to add to the league’s existing pool of whistle-blowers.

Curiously, three former UP Maroons in Raymond Celis, Joey Mendoza and Duane Salvaterra and a former sportswriter in Rey Galupo also expressed intention to join the pool.

No less than NBA chief of referees Darrel Garretson prepared 100 questions – answerable by true or false – for the exam. Garretson is coming over in the first week of February to train the PBA referees.

"I know the guy (Baysa-Pee). He really loves sports. Maybe that drives him to apply for the job," said Martinez, an Atenean like Baysa-Pee.

The PBA has had a policeman, teachers and bankers handling game officiating, but not a lawyer.

The late Igmidio Cahanding, among the pioneer PBA refs, was a police officer. Ogie Bernarte teaches Physical Education at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines while Ernie de Leon used to work at the Far East Bank and Trust Co.

"Mukhang seryoso naman siya. Ang tanong lang niya pwede ba itong part-time job," said PBA operations chief Rickie Santos of the lawyer when he applied in the PBA office, accompanied by Samboy Lim’s wife Leleng.

Baysa-Pee’s background in sports included being a member of the UP-Baguio basketball, table tennis and chess teams from 1987-1993, regional representative of the Cordillera Administrative Region for table tennis in the State Colleges and Universities Athletics Association in Isabela in 1994, chairman and founder of the summer basketball league at the UP-Baguio and team representative for the Ateneo Alumni Basketball League.

He was a consistent member of the Dean’s List of UP-Baguio where he obtained a degree in Bachelor of Social Science, major in economics and in political science. He then took up law in Ateneo, graduating with honors in 1999. — Nelson Beltran