GLOBALPORT’S AREJOLA MAY BE NEXT PBA BOARD CHAIRMAN
ANOTHER unexpected switch in the order of PBA chairmanship is in the offing.
The possibility cropped up after no less than Robert Non of San Miguel Beer Sunday said he is “90 percent” sure he will not sit at the head of the PBA Board when his turn comes at the end of the current season.
That would mean it will be Erick Arejola of GlobalPort presiding over the Board of Governors come the league’s 41st season.
“I still have to fully make up my mind, but the doctors have ordered a complete rest for me,” said Non, who underwent a quadruple bypass operation last Feb. 10 and is still currently confined at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.
The complete rest, added the SMB executive, would take about at least four months and he may not be fit enough to serve even then.
The next PBA season unfolds October with Non supposed to take over from Patrick Gregorio of Talk ‘N Text and Arejola to ascend from treasurer to vice chairman.
Non’s mild heart attack that led to the operation changed the order of things.
Arejola, 34, started out as GlobalPort’s chief of basketball operations before ceding that post to BJ Manalo late in the season-opening Philippine Cup to focus on his job as head of ground operations of Air Asia.
The De La Salle U graduate started out as Harbour Centre’s assistant team manager in 2005 before being assigned to his posts by team owner Mikee Romero when the latter bought the Coca-Cola/Powerade franchise in 2012.
“Di ko muna iniisip iyun,” said Arejola on the prospects of him being the PBA’s 25th Board chairman.
Gregorio himself did not actually pass through the vice-chairmanship.
It was supposed to be Ely Capacio chairing the Board. But his untimely death early last year led to Non having to assume the post, one that did not materialize when the latter begged off and the Board decided to pass the baton directly instead to the TNT representative.
The switch comes on the heels of Chito Salud’s announcement he will not return for a sixth tour of duty as PBA commissioner next season.
The league governors are set to sit down Thursday to lay down the criteria for the selection of Salud’s successor, a process they hope would be done at the end of the ongoing Commissioner’s Cup. (NC)
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