MANILA, 3 October 2003 — The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has vowed to institute stricter measures for future Fil-foreign players, particularly Fil-Ams.
On top of the PBA’s plans is to put up a residency requirement for foreign-born cagers who are aspiring to play in the pro league. PBA Commissioner Noli Eala said the league has decided to put up prospective measures in addition to those already in place in efforts to once and for all put the “Fil-Sham” controversy to rest.
“On whether the residency would be measured by time spent here or playing in other local leagues would still be discussed,” said Eala. “But we’ve been asked to make a presentation on this plan in the next board meeting.”
The board is also seriously studying an option to limit the number of Fil-Ams to be allowed to play in the league in the future.
Eala has presented to the Board of Governors a proposal to limit the number of Fil-foreign players in each team to guarantee that only the best of the best are taken in.
He wants to limit the number of Fil-Ams per team to three or four each. If a certain team has signed up the maximum number of Fil-Ams, it can no longer draft another.
Only the PBA board and Eala’s confirmation are needed before limiting the entry of Fil-foreign players into the PBA.
The players union, Professional Players’ Basketball Association (PPBA), is pushing for the PBA to limit the participation of foreign-bred Filipinos in the premier league.
Union members were ecstatic over the PBA plan.
According to Jojo Lastimosa, spokesman of the PPBA, Eala had agreed in principle to limit the entry of Fil-foreign players in the league. The agreement, Lastimosa said, would be on top of other new rulings imposed by Eala since taking over as league commissioner early this year vice Jun Bernardino.
Limiting the number of Fil-Ams per player may open the door to some more locally-bred cagers bidding to play in the PBA.
So far, only two teams, Sta. Lucia and FedEx, have no Fil-Ams in their lineups. Others, like Alaska, Talk ‘N’ Text and Ginebra, are backstopped by Fil-foreign players. Among the 10 league members, Alaska boasts of the most Fil-foreign players with nine while Ginebra and Talk N’ Text have at least three each.
The Aces’ line-up include Fil-Ams Don Carlos Allado, Ali Peek, John Arigo, Miguel Noble, Jon Ordonio and Robert Duat and draftees Mike Cortez, Brandon Lee Cablay and Eugene Tejada.
The Gin Kings boast a roster that includes Mark Caguioa, Eric Menk, Rob Johnson and Alex Crisano while Fil-Tongan Asi Taulava and Fil-Ams Harvey Carey and William Kahi Villa bolster the Phone Pals. Some teams, however, may consider adopting Eala’s plan since this augurs well with the tough times.
The PBA Rookie Draft this year saw a big number of Fil-foreign aspirants with a record 25 applying for inclusion. All but four made it to the final list of candidates but only a handful were signed.
This year’s batch of Fil-Am rookies passed through a tight screening conducted by no less than Eala to ensure that no fake Fil-foreign players would be able to enter the Annual Rookie Draft.
After the recent rookie draft, Eala immediately imposed a residency requirement on foreign-bred Filipinos wanting to make it to the premier league, aside from requiring them to play in any of the country’s amateur leagues before turning professionals.
The Philippine Basketball League (PBL), the main beneficiary of the new PBA rulings, welcomed Eala’s move while the country’s two leading collegiate leagues — the University Athletic Association of the Philippines and the National Collegiate Athletic Association — would also benefit from the PBA decision.
The Senate Committee on Games and Sports, headed by Sen. Robert Barbers, has finally wrapped up its inquiry on the controversial “Fil-Sham” issue in the PBA, concluding that at least five mainstays in the league, who formally claimed Filipino lineage, have no roots in the Philippines.
All six claimed during committee hearings that they were properly documented by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The Senate committee named the players whose documentation as half-Filipino was dubious as Asi Taulava of Talk N Text, Jon Ordonio and Ali Peek of Alaska, Dorian Pe?a of San Miguel Beer, and Rudolf Hatfield of Coca-Cola. The committee made an investigation and visited the place of birth of people that these players have claimed to be their relatives but could not find their birth, baptismal, residential “and even death certificates.”
The committee wrapped up evidence and pieces of information already divulged against some dubious Fil-Ams in previous hearings.
Barbers said the “Fil-shams” failed to satisfy his series of questions regarding their true bloodlines.
Other alleged “Fil-shams” who have been grilled by the Senate Committee include Eric Menk, Rob Duat, Nic Belasco, Andy Seigle, Rafi Reavis and John Arigo, among others.
The findings mostly unearthed questionable entries on the documents the Fil-foreign players submitted to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation and the Department of Justice to back up their claim to Filipino citizenship.
The “Fil-shams” presented little evidence, if none at all, to rebut Barbers’ findings pointing to them as “fake.”
Sen. Robert Jaworski, himself a former basketball player and a panel member, said he will move for the sanction of some concerned government officials, particularly those in the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Justice for administrative lapses. In some cases, Sen. Jaworski added that it was found out that some players are carrying more that one birth certificate.
“The BI, they have to be more on their toes. We also have to understand that up to a certain degree there were some interactions from the BI to the DOJ that we now have to streamline so that they will be singing the same tune,” he said.
He was referring to the conflicting claims made by the BI and the DOJ on the government policy involving the issuance of certificates of half-Filipino players attesting their right to Filipino citizenship.
“I would like to respect the findings of the chairman. I would like to go through it. I’m sure on one of the basic reasons this (deportation recommendation) was decided on was precisely because of the spurious documents,” he said.
