Air21 president Lito Alvarez resigned Monday as member of the 25-man BAP-Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas board of trustees, four days before the board convenes to tackle the issue of membership of the national cage body.
Alvarez, a BAP-nominated trustee, mentioned heavy load of work in their business as the reason for his resignation.
Observers, however, believed there were other reasons like being caught in the middle of an expected big conflict in the SBP board meeting Friday.
Alvarez is a BAP official who has friends and business partners in Pilipinas Basketball (PB). SBP president Manny Pangilinan, for one, is among Alvarez’s co-owners of Burger King.
The SBP board is composed of 12 trustees each from the BAP and PB. The 25th slot belongs to Pangilinan.
Membership committee chairman Ely Capacio is set to announce Friday the cage organizations which passed the screening for membership.
Pending is membership validation for no less than 88 organizations – 66 from the BAP and 22 from PB.
A reliable source, however, said Capacio would nominate for board approval only about 40 groups which passed the criteria set during the Tokyo accord. – Nelson Beltran