MANILA, 20 December 2002 — True to its promise to give itself a fresh start, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has named a young, innovative talent in lawyer-broadcaster Jose Emmanuel “Noli” Eala as its new commissioner starting next year.
The PBA Board of Governors ended months of thorough search and speculation by tagging Eala, a sportscaster-lawyer with a background in finance and marketing, as the new man at helm of the country’s premier professional basketball league.
Eala, 39, becomes the youngest and sixth commissioner of the league since its inception in 1975, succeeding the long-serving Emilio Bernardino who retires at the end of this month after nine years at the helm.
He joins an elite list of persons named to the post: Leo Prieto, Mariano Yenko, Rudy Salud, Rey Marquez and Bernardino, who served the longest, who were all in their 40s or 50s when named as commissioners.
“A defining moment in my life,” said the Los Banos, Laguna native who is, indeed, facing a daunting task of relaunching the league and pursuing a vision that would reinforce its role as the country’s premier sporting event.
He called the appointment fulfillment of a boyhood dream “of one day being an integral part of a Filipino tradition like the PBA. I’m very happy. It’s an unbelievable feeling. I’m just glad that the selection is finally over,” said Eala, who had to survive what he termed as a smear campaign against him during the jostling for the job, where a pending case against him was leaked to the press for dubious reasons. “I am looking forward to the job and the challenge. In fact, there’ll be no rest for me because I am looking forward to a working Christmas.”
Considered as the longest in among the long shots, Eala beat former PBA chairman Rey Gamboa and ex-PBA coach Chito Narvasa for the post, which is one of the most prestigious in Philippine sports.
According to PBA chairman Butch Alejo of Purefoods, Eala got the board’s nod of approval because of his “dynamic vision for the league” he thoroughly presented to the board.
Eala said his vision for the league is to basically go back to the basic of strengthening the league and improving its product.
“In reaching this very critical decision, the board has followed a thorough, transparent and fair process. The new commissioner faces an exciting and daunting role of helping relaunch the league. The goal is to renew and heighten the interest of basketball fans in the PBA. The achievement of the goal is clearly of paramount importance,” said Alejo.
Alejo said the 10-man board had undergone the process of straw-voting and a series of brainstorming before it decided to name Eala.
“Under his (Eala’s) stewardship, and with the total support and guidance of the board, we believe that the PBA is poised to enter a new era of providing quality sports entertainment, beginning the New Year 2003,” Alejo added.
The board said Eala fits like a glove for the position.
“The board decided based on what they need. The requirement is a marketing man who could sell the league to increase its profits. I think Noli is best fit for the job.”
Alejo said they looked at the totality of what Eala can do for the league in reaching a consensus on his appointment and that the decision was based on Eala’s big plans to revive public interest in the league.
The board, for its part, promised to go all-out on financing the plans and objectives of the new commissioner in running the oldest play-for-pay cage loop in Asia.
“Foremost considerations were what he told us he can do, as well as his ideas on how to re-launch the PBA,” said Alejo. “It’s really more of an overall consideration given the fact that he had a lot of good ideas during his presentation. He obviously has a love for basketball. So we feel he is the person who can provide direction, to steer the PBA to greater heights and improve the overall rating of the PBA.”
“He will get the financial support of the entire board. The governors have very good intentions of really resuscitating the PBA. It was a general consensus to back him up, in fact,” said Alejo.
The PBA is in the process of recovering from a declining trend in terms of sales and gate receipts due to the economic crisis that hit the region.
The league spent 155 million pesos in operating expenses, outside of the national team expenditures, and could shell out more than that to support Eala’s plans despite moves by the team owners to reduce spending by first trimming the salary cap.
Eala expressed his gratitude to the PBA Board “for bestowing upon me this honor and privilege very few men have been able to achieve.
“The position of commissioner is not a reward but a challenge and together with this Board... we will meet and overcome these challenges,” Eala said.
“One of the things I’m considering is changing the format radically from what it is right now,” said Eala. “I am also hoping to reconnect the players back to the people and bringing the league back to the basics — which is being the No. 1 sports and entertainment vehicle in the country.”
Eala is reportedly planning on having just one-league championship per season with as many as 14 teams participating in the next three years.
He also plans to hold an invitational tournament involving the top four teams in the PBA, collegiate squads and even possibly foreign entries during the spare months. He said it would help provide the infrastructure for the formation of future national teams.
The announcement of Eala’s appointment came after what Alejo described as “a through, transparent and fair process, which included the presetting of selection criteria followed by a serious search for prospective candidates.”
From a long list, the candidates were ultimately pruned down to the final three. In a straw voting, Eala garnered four votes. Alejo said it was a general consensus of the Board to pick Eala.
“To a certain extent,” Alejo said, “it was a judgment call since the two other final candidates were also well qualified.”
Bernardino, who announced last July he would quit after this season due to health reasons, welcomed Eala’s appointment, saying: “I wish him the best of luck. He has his work cut out for him and I’m sure he would be up to it. My advise to him is to protect the interest of the league, the teams and always have the fans in mind.”
Eala took up Bachelor of Arts major in Political Science in Ateneo and graduated in 1984, before taking up law in the same school and finishing his studies in 1988. He passed the board exams in 1989.
He attended grade and high school at La Salle and transferred to Ateneo in college.
At the time of his appointment, Eala was a senior anchorman of Viva-Vintage Sports, the outfit covering PBA games up to the end of the season. He has been instrumental in improving the television ratings of the league, having been a member of the PBA television panel since 1993.
A sports lover, he found it difficult to resist the temptation to join the radio coverage of the league in 1990. After getting noticed there, he moved up to the television booth in 1993.
That same year proved to be a successful one in his two careers as he was named a partner in the Puno law firm. He quit his job last year to concentrate on his family businesses and his own business endeavors.
Eala helps manage the family-owned San Pablo College and San Pablo City Medical Center in Laguna while managing his own events-marketing group, Arian Works, which last year brought the World Women’s Volleyball Grand Prix to the country.
