'Chua knew Alvarado'

The PBA will cite an article by The STAR columnist Joaquin Henson in the league annual Hardcourt last year regarding Sonny Alvarado as it seeks to hurdle legal impediments barring the league from resuming action in the PBA All-Filipino Cup.

In the article, Henson wrote that "Alvarado was (Tanduay coach Alfrancis) Chua's discovery. Chua quietly traded for the PBA's No. 1 overall pick this year and chose Alvarado in the steal of the decade."

PBA legal counsel Butch Cleofe said this clearly contradicts the statement of Tanduay officials who, in their petition for a court injunction, said they had no previous knowledge of Alvarado and that they were unjustly penalized by the league ruling on the player whose services they got through the league's draft system.

Cleofe said Chua has never denied Henson's claim on his article.

PBA Commissioner Jun Bernardino, in his affidavit, said nobody knew Alvarado until the player's application for the 1999 drafting was submitted by fax in the 11th hour after Tanduay got a trade deal with Alaska involving the latter's first round pick.

Bernardino noted "(it's) a coincidence that is very hard to ignore when one looks back at the events which transpired before the 1999 Annual Draft."

There were reports that PBA executive secretary Erlinda Celeste Vergara filed Alvarado's draft application. Incidentally, Alvarado was found by the Bureau of Immigration to have falsified legal documents in cahoots with Vergara.

The PBA legal counsel has said they are inclined to go to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court to seek injunction against an extended temporary restraining order, stopping the league from enforcing its ruling against Tanduay.

The PBA Commissioner's Office is expected to pursue its legal battle with Tanduay as it failed in its attempt again yesterday to settle the dispute.

Tanduay, through team manager David de Joya, came up with another offer to break the impasse, saying it will withdraw the TRO granted them by Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Teofilo Guadiz provided the league calls for the restart of the Tanduay-Purefoods playoff, reducing it to a best-of-three affair.

But Bernardino stood firm on his decision to forfeit Tanduay's two won games over Purefoods where Alvarado saw action.

On Friday, Tanduay requested an emergency executive meeting where it offered to withdraw the TRO, provided the Commissioner's Office declared Games Two and Three of the series void, thus giving the Rhum Masters a 1-0 lead at the resumption of the playoff.

Meanwhile, Sen. Robert Barbers said agents who brought in fake Fil-Americans to play in the PBA should also be investigated and properly sanctioned.

He urged Bernardino to file charges against the agents involved and even blacklist them "for fooling the entire nation."

Barbers said that if there are other persons who should be penalized for this irregularity, it should be the agents who brought these fake Fil-Americans to play in the country. -