BY NOLI CORTEZ
PUREFOODS’ Rene Pardo yesterday announced his resignation as
chairman of the PBA Board’s Ethics Committee as a direct
off-shoot of the team’s disgruntlement on the way Commissioner
Sonny Barrios handled the James Yap case.
The Giants’ representative to the PBA Board
said he has already advised league chairman Tony Chua of his
decision, which came after the governors upheld Barrios’
decision to suspend Yap.
"To simply stress the point of the company
that we’re very unhappy about the decision of the
Commissioner’s Office to upgrade the penalty on James Yap,"
Pardo explained.
He added he will submit his formal
resignation in the next Board meeting on Feb. 27 and further
bring up the case for clear-cut policies regarding "such
incidents" in the future.
The prolific Purefoods star was to serve
out his one-game suspension yesterday in the fifth match of
the best-of-seven title series with Sta. Lucia Realty. The
series was tied at two games apiece.
Yap was meted the suspension, which comes
on top of a P20,000 fine, for committing a hard foul on
Realtor Joseph Yeo in the dying seconds of Game 3 last
Wednesday.
The referees initially slapped a flagrant
foul-penalty one on Yap, but that was upgraded to a penalty
two upon the Commissioner’s Office’s review of the game tapes
last Thursday. The harsher foul carries with it the automatic
penalties.
Purefoods management initially appealed to
Barrios and, after being denied, brought it up to the Board
last Friday. Through the intercession of Chua, who cited the
fans’ interest, Barrios did agree to have Yap serve out the
suspension from last Friday’s game to last night.
Unmollified, Pardo said Barrios’ move to
upgrade the penalty was questionable, to say the least. He
cited some instances in the past when the serving of a
suspension in a finals series was deferred "for the benefit of
the league and not to prejudice" a team.
"In this case, who benefited from the
suspension of James? Definitely it was not Purefoods, nor the
fans following the finals series," Pardo said.
"So we felt it was a harsh decision on the
past of the commissioner to upgrade the penalty during the
finals."
Barrios’ decision, Pardo added, also
"leaves a bad taste in the mouth," coming as it did on the
same day the commissioner met with some top Sta. Lucia
officials at the EDSA-Shangrila hotel.
"I’m not saying it’s wrong to have lunch
with the owner, but the timing was awful. It should have been
with some sense of propriety that the lunch offer was turned
down," he stated.
Barrios, however, found nothing wrong with
said meeting, conducted as it was in a public place and with
other people present. "Kung sa tingin ko mali ’yung pakikipag-meeting
na iyon, hindi ko gagawin," he said.
The meeting, Barrios added, is actually
part of what he termed as his "listening ear, positive
communication" policy which he implemented when he first
became officer-in-charge of the league last August.
"Some people may even give the meeting a malicious twist or
perception because of the timing," he said. "But it was a very
open meeting and no pressure of any nature was exerted."
