THE TWO factions dividing the PBA has, according to the league’s media bureau chief, agreed to resolve their differences privately and not involve the media in their skirmishes.
The group made up of San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra, Star, KIA and GlobalPort representatives sent Willie Marcial to broker some sort of truce with a seven-team faction headed by Manny V. Pangilinan teams calling for the appointment of a new commissioner vice Chito Narvasa.
“They all agreed to resolve this as quietly as possible,” Marcial told the Inquirer over the phone after talking to members of the seven-team group, which also involve representatives coming from Phoenix Petroleum, Blackwater, Rain or Shine and Alaska.
Media entities gobbled up the issue with gusto earlier in the week when the seven-team group had called for the ouster of Narvasa and refused to give him a new term in a meeting they attended on Thursday.
San Miguel, Barangay Ginebra, Star, GlobalPort and KIA weren’t present during the meeting presided upon by incoming chairman Ramoncito Fernandez of NLEX.
Meralco and TNT KaTropa are the others in the seven-team faction.
‘PBA being hurt’
Members of the other group deplored that act and declared that they are backing Narvasa all the way, creating a stalemate of sorts after the other group had already appointed long-time manager of operations Rickie Santos as officer-in-charge.
“They (both parties) agreed that it is the PBA that is being hurt,” Marcial went on.
The board flies out to Los Angeles in the United States on Nov. 10 for its annual planning session, which could potentially be an explosive meeting if all of the team representatives are present and if they go there without resolving this issue first.
Narvasa decided to fight it out because the group seeking his ouster doesn’t have the number of eight votes required to appoint a new commissioner.
Former two-time chairman Robert Non of San Miguel spoke in behalf of the five-team side on Thursday, where he declared their full support to Narvasa.
Narvasa, who called the shots in the last two seasons, also doesn’t have the required eight votes to earn a fresh mandate, necessitating this standoff of sorts.