MANILA: As things look at this time, it seems like June Mar Fajardo has a lock on a second straight MVP award, something that will distinguish him from all the others who have won the prestigious trophy in their careers in the past.

The 6-foot-10 franchise player of San Miguel Beer, just in his third year in the pros, has certainly realized his potential as a great player and, in just a few more weeks, will join a very short list of players who have won the MVP two straight years.

There have been multiple winners, and all of them are forever etched in the history books of the PBA.

And Fajardo, with the exuberance of youth still on his side, certainly has the chance to distance himself from the other greats.

Ramon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio each won four, though neither won in successive years; Benjie Paras was the first and only Rookie of the Year-MVP in 1989 and won a second 10 years later.

There are so many others, with Danny Ildefonso, who played his best years with San Miguel, winning it successively from 1999. He would never win another again and is now spending the twilight of his illustrious career with Meralco.

Fajardo, with the way he is playing and having a sound mindset, will most certainly win another with a good 10 to 12 years to go before the poor fisherman’s son from Cebu finally calls it a career.

So we write this now to more or less find out who among the present crop of superstars in the league could prevent Fajardo from winning another, if not two more, or even three more, to become the most decorated player of all time.

We say that Fajardo will win more because the San Miguel Beer team is a squad that is centered on him, with management building a team around the former University of Cebu stalwart and surrounding him with a sound supporting crew.

Unlike the other stars in the other teams who are surrounded by stars in all positions, San Miguel has left the center position solely for Fajardo to occupy.

The make-up of the San Miguel squad is very good as far as Fajardo is concerned.

Being the only reliable center in the roster, Fajardo has access to scoring and rebounding because he will be in the game for extended minutes by not needing to share playing time with anyone.

What will make him an MVP a number of more times are the player surrounding him, players like Arwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot and a few more.

You know why?

When Fajardo is on the floor with any of these guys, the opposing team cannot just order a consistent double on Fajardo because all of those other guys can score.

And being 6-foot-10 with agile feet and soft hands, Fajardo can take on anyone in the league one-on-one and can score at will. In his first three years in the PBA, there has not been one man that showed he can stop Fajardo alone. With more experience, the kid can only get better.

And if he does get doubled on a consistent basis in the low block, Fajardo can pop passes out and turn them into assists, which would mean additional stats for him to pile up for another MVP award.

The guy is really full of potential and we dare say that he has yet to realize the fullness of it. June Mar is just nearing the prime of his career, and that is indeed scary for the rest of the field.

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Fajardo churned out MVP-like numbers again on Thursday night, shooting 20 points that went with 10 boards as San Miguel Beer came from behind to nip Rain or Shine, 101-95, for a 1-0 lead in their Final Four series in the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

Arizona Reid scored 22 points, had 16 rebounds and missed a triple double by two assists as the Beermen grabbed psychological edge going into the critical second game Saturday afternoon also at the Big Dome floor.

The Beermen held the Elasto Painters scoreless in the final 4:40 to complete their rise from 24 points down in the first half.

All of coach Leo Austria’s starters scored in twin digits with Alex Cabagnot shooting 15 and issuing eight assists, Arwind Santos shooting 13 and grabbing 12 boards and Marcio Lassiter sharing top scoring honors with Reid with 22 built around four triples.

Rain or Shine looked to be headed to a very convincing win after taking leads of as large as 45-21 early in the second quarter behind the shifty Paul Lee.

But things disintegrated in the fourth period for the Painters, who were tied with the Beermen at 95 with 4:40 left before failing to score the rest of the way.

Wendell McKines shot 33 to lead the Painters, who will have a lot of soul-searching to do to find out what went wrong.

“This is unbelievable, we were down big but we managed to come back and win this one,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria told reporters later, obviously ecstatic after ordering the shift from man-to-man defense to zone in the second half.

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Greg Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra is certainly a looming candidate for the MVP award in the future, but safe to say, the 7-footer, who is also from Cebu, is now trailing Fajardo as far as overall talent is concerned.

Slaughter and Fajardo came up with classic confrontations while they were still in college in the Queen City of the South several years back. But the exposure of Fajardo to international events with Gilas Pilipinas has made him a better player.

Slaughter has yet to answer the call of national duty.

Who knows? That might just be what he needs to be at par again with Fajardo.

And then there’s Paul Lee of Rain or Shine, who is crowding Fajardo for the Best Player of the Conference award with a brilliant all-around effort so far in the tournament.

The problem that Lee has is that at Rain or Shine, he doesn’t get to see minutes as big as Fajardo is having, with so many other capable of playing the point and coach Yeng Guiao reserving him only for the tough grinds.

Lee is averaging just over 27 minutes a contest, while Fajardo is turning in 35, and those eight minutes are probably what has separated the San Miguel center from the Rain or Shine point guard.