Willie Marcial is new PBA Commissioner

Willie Marcial. / CDN FILE PHOTO

FROM statistician, to the TV coverage’s floor director and now commissioner, Willie Marcial, a 56-year-old from Batangas, has literally risen from the ranks and has the biggest task associated with the job — probably more than what his predecessors had.

“He’ll help us through, he’ll be the healing commissioner,” chair Ricky Vargas said of Marcial, who got the full nod of the board in a meeting on Thursday at the league’s offices in Libis, Quezon City.

Marcial will be given a three-year term as the 10th PBA commissioner after Leo Prieto, Mariano Yenko, Rudy Salud, Rey Marquez, Jun Bernardino, Noli Eala, Sonny Barrios, Chito Salud and Chito Narvasa.

“I would just like to thank the board for the opportunity,” Marcial told reporters after his appointment as he quickly buckled down to work by meeting with his staff and various departments of the Commissioner’s Office.

Vargas, in a statement sent to members of the media yesterday, said Marcial is the right guy for the job.

“At this time, it’s important to give it to somebody who grew up in the PBA, who understands the PBA, the by-laws; who has been mentored by many PBA commissioners in the past. He’s one who has learned over the years in the PBA.”

Marcial has been part of the PBA management team from the time of Eala. He rose all the way from being a statistician during the time of Prieto then floor director with TV coveror Vintage
Enterprises from the tenures of Salud to Bernardino.

The board did not go through the usual selection process in arriving at its decision to tap Marcial, this, after the body was literally divided into two over the tenure of Chito Narvasa, whom
Marcial served as his special assistant and media bureau head.

That is exactly the “healing process” that Vargas is talking about, and it is a huge task that Marcial would have to accomplish. /Inquirer