BCAP to adopt high standard for foreign coaches

The Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines (BCAP) is not totally against the idea of local ballclubs hiring foreign coaches. For this very reason, the group is set to adopt a high standard from which foreign coaches will be measured from now on.

"We’re doing this as yardstick for foreign coaches.

Ayaw na namin kasi pa nang puro away," BCAP president Chito Narvasa said before the PSA Forum at the Manila Pavilion.

Accompanied by legal officers Atty. Ogie Narvasa and Gilbert Santos as well as BCAP officer Tany Gonzales, Narvasa presented a five-point scheme the group is set to use as gauge in case another foreign coach is tapped to handle a local team similar to the moves made by Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) squads Talk ‘N Text and Formula Shell.

Among the interesting point is for a foreign coach to have assumed a head or assistant coaching job in the National Basketball Association (NBA), a 10-year tenure in the US NCAA or a five-year stint if he happens to be a Continental Basketball Association (CBA) mentor.

Narvasa said the idea is of big help especially to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), which can refer to it as proper guidelines should a foreign mentor applies for a working permit.

"It is the responsibility of DOLE to determine if a foreign coach is qualified to be given an alien employment permit. So more or less, this will serve as guidelines to them," said Narvasa in the Red Bull and Agfa Colors sponsored forum.

The recent decision of the Court of Appeals setting aside the earlier decisions of Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas and a DOLE regional director of allowing American coaches Bill Bayno and Paul Woolpert to handle Talk ‘N Text gave BCAP the big shot in the arm it needed in its pursuit of uplifting the status of Filipino coaches.

BCAP earlier opposed the move of the telecommunication company to hire the services of the two high-profiled US coaches by filing a case against them at the labor department.

Sto. Tomas and DOLE-National Capital Region director Alex Maraan, however, ruled in favor of Bayno and Woolpert, paving the way for their respective stints in the PBA.

The development prompted Narvasa and Co. to elevate the matter to the CA, which came out with the landmark decision only recently when both Bayno and Woolpert had long been replaced by Talk ‘N Text management.

Narvasa said his group wants to keep the momentum going by coming up with this particular guidelines.

Plans are now afoot about presenting the scheme before the PBA Board, although BCAP is still waiting for league Chairman Bobby Kanapi to set a meeting.

He also said the group is willing to relax certain provisions of the program.

"We’ve always proven ourselves flexible. That’s why this is still a proposal. We just wanted to have a starting point," said the one-time Shell mentor.

For his part, Atty. Narvasa stressed that BCAP is not really preventing teams from hiring foreign coaches provided that no Filipino is qualified for the job.

"The law provides that only if there’s no Filipinos competent, willing and able to do the job will one resort to look for someone outside of the country. Of course, we welcome them (foreign coaches) especially is he has a established skills and proven track record. Ang sa amin lang naman is for us to follow the procedure," Atty. Narvasa said.