Lingering questions

The resignation of De La Salle senior basketball team manager Terry Capistrano was an honorable gesture, I’m sure, but it doesn’t resolve many of the issues still hanging over the player ineligibility issue. 

University officials have given assurances that the investigations are incomplete and that the university is looking into its entire athletic program with a view to overhauling existing systems and practices. In fact, it intends to take a one-year leave from the UAAP while the school administration is doing that.

The one-year "leave," of course, is not quite the suspension that some UAAP board members insist De La Salle should be meted as a penalty. The board hasn’t even ruled if one year is an appropriate period of suspension or whether a more serious penalty should be decided upon. That ball is clearly in the board’s court.

As the committee examines the school’s entire athletics program – and I assume it will start with basketball – there are a number of things which I hope it will look into, including the concern of many La Salle alumni themselves that an obsession with "victory at all costs" (not my phrase) may have led some team officials to adopt a benighted policy of recruiting "mercenaries" (also not my word) at the expense of the academic institution’s primary mission of providing education for our youth.

The committee might clarify once and for all the role of that company called AMG International, Inc. Some players, particularly former team members who chose to leave the school rather than sign the agreement, have alleged that they were coerced to sign up as managed players of the company. Those who refused, these disgruntled former team members claim, were "benched" or not given an opportunity to develop their skills in order to improve their prospects of joining the professional leagues.

Admittedly, this may be mere griping on the part of untalented players with bloated opinions of their playing abilities, as some team officials have countered. However, the young student-players are essentially at the mercy of coaches who have the power to build them up or becloud their futures at a very early stage of their careers. Investigators have to even up the playing field, as it were, and give these players a chance to air their side without fear of retaliation or blackballing. Some of them are the sole support, the remaining life lines, of impoverished families.

We’ve disclosed in a previous column that among the incorporators of AMG were assistant team manager Manny Salgado, Terry’s wife Gina Capistrano, Los Angeles-based player agent Mike Gonzales and Ma. Christina V. de Guzman, the sister-in-law of senior varsity head coach Franz Pumaren. We have since received information that Mrs. Capistrano divested all her shares in AMG five months after its incorporation.

It is unclear whether anyone else other than Gina Capistrano disposed of their shares in AMG. If she was the only one who divested, some questions of conflict of interest could arise. Moreover, what obviously will govern is substance rather than form. We’d have to see, for instance, who bought those shares and whether they play actual roles in the company or are mere nominees.

The terms of one AMG management contract we’ve seen can be characterized as onerous for the player. Although, the contract I’ve seen was signed by a former college player turned pro, my source insists that his contract is basically the same one that college players were allegedly being asked to sign. Under current UAAP rules, there are apparently no clear rules prohibiting college players from making commercial advertisements or otherwise receiving fees for endorsements or "appearances."

AMG binds itself to exert "earnest efforts," (not, you might note, "best efforts") to promote and market the player and to secure "employment opportunities" for him. The term "earnest" is not otherwise defined, nor are there any consequences to possible failure by AMG to secure contracts within a certain period of time.

AMG is given "exclusive authority" to represent the player in negotiating and executing contracts. The authority includes "product endorsement, advertising, movies, television appearances, exhibition games and other agreements connected with (the player’s) talent as basketball player." While the contract is in force, the player is barred from himself negotiating or signing any contracts covering the mentioned activities.

AMG gets 10 percent of all earnings of the player and can require automatic deduction of its cut from all amounts due the player. The contract we saw was for five years, but is automatically extended until a contract obtained by AMG expires.

The contract says it is "not terminable at will by either party." But if AMG nevertheless unilaterally terminates it, all it has to pay the player is P45,000. If it is the player that decides to end the deal, he has to keep paying AMG its 10 percent share "…pursuant to existing contracts… entered into by (the player)" throughout the original duration of the contract. If this simply allows AMG to keep, for the entire original term of the deal, all commissions from contracts it obtained for the player, then it’s fair.

But if the unclear contract language is read to mean that AMG also gets a 10 percent cut from contracts obtained by the player after terminating the AMG deal, for the entire original term of the deal, this would be clearly unconscionable. In any event, it seems much more expensive for the player to cancel the deal than it is for AMG.

Also, if the player, for instance, questions the earnestness of AMG’s efforts in marketing him, the company can keep him quiet by threatening to cancel the contract, paying him a pittance and making sure his fellow player managers treat him like a leper.

What’s important is that the investigators go beyond looking at the specific roles of particular individuals or companies, and determine whether there was a discernible overall pattern of questionable conduct aimed at procuring victory, whatever the cost.

Naturally, the same questions asked of DLSU can be addressed to all UAAP schools. But the reality is that the scandal first broke out at Taft Ave. Before it can credibly point its fingers in other directions, our "green-blooded" friends (once again, not my term, and I’m not passing around any text messages alluding to The Exorcist) have got to set the example and clean up their act.