Baylon: I am still Powerade governor

MANILA, Philippines - JB Baylon insists he has not been fired by Coca-Cola, and is therefore still the board governor for the Powerade Tigers and PBA vice-chairman.

Baylon made the statements in reaction to his swift replacement by Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. (CCBPI) as its PBA representative immediately upon filing his two weeks’ notice. The amiable team executive said the news of immediate effectivity of his resignation was an “un-truth”.

“To be clear: my resignation is effective Feb. 29. I remain an employee of Coca-Cola till that day,” Baylon said in a text message to The STAR late Friday. “Following the logic that I have not been removed by CCBPI, I remain governor of the Powerade franchise and (PBA) vice-chairman.”

Baylon’s resignation, announced before Powerade’s Friday night PBA game, was in connection with the impending sale of the Tigers back to the San Miguel group, which was also escalated by the proposed trade of Powerade rookie Marcio Lassiter for Petron Blaze bench players Noy Baclao and Rey Guevarra. Baclao and Guevarra were drafted number one and three, respectively, in the 2010 PBA rookie draft, but have seen limited playing time with Petron. The trade and sale of the team have not been ruled on by the PBA board. Baylon said that the sale of the team had been proposed much earlier, even before the start of the last All-Filipino conference, which made their startling finals run even more bittersweet.

Friday afternoon, Baylon sent The STAR a text revealing that he had resigned, and added CCBPI management’s response.

“I resigned from Coke effective Feb. 29. (CCBPI president William) Schultz then wrote PBA today immediately replacing me as governor.”

On his Twitter and Facebook accounts, Baylon has also been trying to correct erroneous reports that he had been replaced as PBA governor because his resignation was effective immediately.

“Please let every mediaman know that my resignation is effective Feb. 29,” he stressed. “So strictly speaking, I remain an employee of Coca-Cola until that day.”