PBA meet in LA: Five present, 7 absent?

LOS ANGELES – All PBA plans and proposals may well remain on hold as the PBA board of governors may not be able to muster a quorum to push through with its supposed planning session here on Nov. 14.

Even the transfer of the league chairmanship from GlobalPort’s Mikee Romero to NLEX’s Ramoncito Fernandez may have to wait as the arrival or non-arrival of the incoming chair has been a guessing game here.

San Miguel Beer’s Robert Non, Star’s Rene Pardo, Blackwater’s Silliman Sy and Meralco’s Ryan Gregorio were the only governors who were with the bulk of the PBA delegation that flew in here Friday.

Alaska Milk’s Dickie Bachmann, Barangay Ginebra’s Alfrancis Chua and GlobalPort’s Erick Arejola left Manila ahead of the delegation. It’s uncertain, though, whether they will occupy their rooms at Hotel Sofitel along Beverly Blvd.

As the board remained in a stalemate in their dispute over the tenure of PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa in a meeting Wednesday, Mert Mondragon of Rain or Shine, Raymond Zorrilla of Phoenix Petroleum and Patrick Gregorio of TNT KaTropa already begged off from joining the LA trip.

Kia’s Bobby Rosales is swinging over from another US state.

A big question is whether Fernandez is pushing through with his trip on Monday. Also a question is whether the board will be able to muster a quorum.

If ever, this would be the first time in over a decade that the PBA would be scrapping its annual board planning session.

The PBA has plunged into a crisis with a group of seven governors representing TNT KaTropa, Meralco, NLEX, Rain or Shine, Blackwater, Phoenix Petroleum and Alaska calling for the non-extension of Narvasa’s term as commissioner.

Representatives of San Miguel Beer, Barangay Ginebra, Star, GlobalPort and Kia contested, though, that the board can only hire and fire a league commissioner by a twothirds vote.

They’re saying the commissioner’s term doesn’t automatically lapse at the end of the season.