Cleofe, ex-PBA legal counsel, 58

Lawyer Ruben “Butch” Cleofe, who served under three commissioners as legal counsel of the Philippine Basketball Association, passed away Saturday morning after a massive heart attack at his residence.

He would have turned 59 on Nov. 26.

Cleofe, who came into the PBA in the early 1980s as a protégé of then legal counsel Rodrigo Salud, first was also the secretary of the board for more than a decade before retiring in 2001.

Cleofe, who graduated from the Ateneo Law School and finished in the Top 10 of the 1977 bar examinations, held the legal counsel position of PBCom at the time of his death.

He recently returned to the PBA as a legal adviser on the prodding of good friend and fellow Atenean and PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios.

Cleofe’s remains lie in state at the Loyola Memorial Chapels in Marikina. Interment will be announced later.