Salud vetoes Petron-Powerade trade
Powerade's Big Three will remain intact for the meantime after PBA commissioner Rudy Salud vetoed the proposed trade that would have sent Marcio Lassiter to Petron Blaze in exchange for Nonoy Baclao and Rey Guevarra.
"My main concern as commissioner is to find out whether a sale or not has been consummated between Coke and San Miguel because if one was consummated then those two parties would be related parties and therefore no trade between them could ever be allowed under current rules," Salud said in a statement. "Having established anyway that no sale was consummated, these two teams can now make trades. Upon evaluation of the trade that is now before my office, I am exercising my right as commissioner to veto the trade and return the trade to the parties concerned for possible revisions to make it more balanced."
The trade had come under fire following reports that the Powerade franchise was set to be reacquired by the San Miguel group. Salud had said that he would defer action on the trade until after he got to the bottom of the supposed Powerade purchase. Yet at the end of the day it appears his basis of rejecting the trade was what he perceived to be an imbalance in the players to be exchanged.
This does not mean, though, that negotiations are over. Petron can always revise the trade to make it more to Salud's liking by throwing in another player. The Tigers, though, probably wish this would be the end of all this trade talk. Although publicly most of the Powerade players have said the right things and not openly questioned the trade, it's clear the team preferred that Lassiter stay out.
Salud also said his office has no copy of the supposed right of first refusal that was granted to San Miguel after Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. bought the team in 2006.
"That right of first refusal that was granted to the San Miguel group when the shares of stock were acquired by the bottlers from San Miguel is not on file with us," Salud said.
When asked whether this adds a wrinkle to the supposed reacquisition of Powerade by SMC, the Commissioner said:
"Any sale transfer or assignment of a franchise will only be valid upon the approval of 2/3 of the board regardless [whether] a right of first refusal exists between two parties. Two parties, one party belonging to the PBA or a third party not necessarily belonging to the board, that right of first refusal does not necessarily bind the board of governors into approving a sale between the two."
Salud added that the Board would tackle the issue of teams rumored to be on the selling block unloading players and benefiting other teams.
"The operative word before the Board can take action on any franchise sale is consummation. A sale between an existing team member to a third party will be brought to the attention of the board, the board will be convened to approve or reject the said sale and it requires the vote of 2/3. Now, where do all these speculations and concerns of unloading of players in contemplation of a trade in the future come from? It comes from a loophole in our rules bec there are no rules that cover the gap between the intention to sell and the actual notice sent to the PBA. That's why our Board has agreed that during the next Board meeting, the commissioner will be proposing rules precisely to cover that lag, that vacuum and together, collectively, we will formulate rules to avoid the unloading or trading of players in contemplation of a sale."
When asked if Powerade was indeed exiting the league, acting Powerade governor Ronnie Asuncion had this to say:
"We intend to stay in the PBA for as long as it takes to win a championship. I cannot be totally honest that I am biased because I think we will win this next conference but by all means don't misconstrue it as an eagerness to exit the league. It's just an eagerness to win the championship.
On the supposed sale, Asuncion said:
"There has been a lot of speculation and what we have learned and what we we continue to learn is to be discerning of information and this opportunity given by the PBA board for a special meeting has allowed us to explain our official position that no sale has been done, no sums of money have been exchanged between two parties."
Asuncion also admitted all this talk has affected the morale of the team, although in their conference debut the Tigers fought back from 17 points down to nip the Rain or Shine Elastopainters, 122-120. He said he hopes this clarification will finally free the players of any distractions.
"Right now I would say that the previous conference was truly a heartwarming and inspiring conference to see the Tigers really battle their best and at this point all this speculation and negative press I'm sure has affected their morale and to lay to rest all this speculation that the franchise has been sold would truly help to uplift the spirit of the team."
E-mail: sid_ventura@yahoo.com. Twitter: @Sid_Ventura
