Narvasa: I offered to leave MBA post

In what can best be described as a very fluid situation, Metropolitan Basketball Association Commissioner Ogie Narvasa is staying his post -- for now.

Responding to reports that he is being removed from his office by some MBA insiders, Narvasa revealed that the offer to leave actually came from him.

"One of the ways the league will be able to survive next year is by cutting the budget," said the practicing lawyer. "And that includes the Commissioner’s Office. With an operating budget that is P10 million less than last year, I suggested that I leave and they let (MBA operations director) Butch Antonio run it."

"We don’t really know what is going on with the board," Antonio says. "That’s the truth. But Mr. Bert Lina (MBA chairman) met with Com. Narvasa last Friday to find means for us to be able to work with the budget we’ve been given."

Rumors about Narvasa’s supposed ouster started circulating immediately after the MBA national finals won by the San Juan Knights. MBA sources reportedly wanted Narvasa replaced, implying that he had a hand in San Juan’s successful MBA campaign. Narvasa’s father, former Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, represents San Juan Mayor and Knights team manager Jinggoy Estrada’s father, President Estrada, in the ongoing impeachment trials. Narvasa denied that the relationship of their fathers had anything to do with San Juan’s six-game title run at the expense of the Negros Slashers.

"San Juan was the better team," Narvasa says.

Although Narvasa said that Lina has maintained that he is still the league’s commissioner, the former national player also told The STAR that he is frustrated trying to reconcile the league’s plans with what is going on within some of the teams. Narvasa stresses that his overriding desire is to keep the league’s best interests his top priority.

"It is a very difficult situation when some of the teams don’t pay their players as is stipulated in their contracts," bemoaned Narvasa, who wrote a new uniform players’ contract (UPC) precisely to streamline the teams’ and players’ obligations. "I said that the teams that don’t pay their obligation to their players – and the league – on time should not be allowed to play."

Narvasa was in a meeting with Lina and members of the MBA board until late yesterday afternoon. One of the main items on the agenda was the reorganization of the MBA Commissioner’s office.