PBA to begin search for next commish

MANILA, Philippines – PBA board chairman Patrick Gregorio will call a special board meeting at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the MOA Arena or about an hour before league commissioner Chito Salud formally announces in a press conference his plan to vacate his post at the end of the current PBA season.

The agenda could well be the process the board will undertake in choosing the next commissioner.

The STAR tried to get in touch with the board chair, who replied via a text message saying he’ll talk about the matter after the special board meeting.

Willie Marcial, the executive assistant to the commissioner, said all governors have committed their presence as Salud bares all his plans in the press conference.

“I do not know if the commissioner would suggest names as his possible successor,” said Marcial.

“In our casual talks, he was saying the league foundations have been in place and what the league needs now is a marketing man,” Marcial also said.

Marcial, a PBA official since the time of Noli Eala at the helm of the league, has his own idea as the ideal next PBA commissioner.

“There’s Bobby Barreiro as marketing man. And one can easily think about Chito Loyzaga and Chito Narvasa as basketball men and leaders. There’s also Ariel Magno who is a basketball man and lawyer,” said Marcial.

“But that’s just my personal opinion,” Marcial stressed.

Barreiro used to be a top official of GMA-7 and TV5 while Magno is a lawyer who has sat on the PBA board as alternate governor of the Sta. Lucia Realty team.

Loyzaga is a longtime player who had his turn as commissioner of the defunct MBA and has also served the Philippine Sports Commission as commissioner while Narvasa is a former Ateneo Eagle and ex-PBA coach who is president of the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines.

Narvasa, son of former Supreme Court chief justice Andres Narvasa, has already been considered to be PBA commissioner before.

He’s once been a UAAP commissioner.

Another possible candidate is Rickie Santos, who has been operations chief of the league from the time of Jun Bernardino in the 90s.

Salud, the eighth gentleman to serve as commissioner of the PBA, is quitting his post after serving five full terms.

Salud, a lawyer who has also served as president of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. and the Natural Resources Development Corp., is the PBA’s eighth commissioner after Leo Prieto, Mariano Yenko, his father Rudy Salud, Rey Marquez, Jun Bernardino, Noli Eala and Barrios.

He succeeded Barrios on Aug. 26, 2010 and, under his term, saw the league enjoy one banner year after another.