HO CHI MINH CITY,Vietnam – Inspired by Energen Pilipinas’ semifinal finish in the FIBA-Asia U-16 Championship, team manager Joel Lopa has signified his intention to extend the four-year cage program.
“Basically the commitment of Energen is for a year and then we’ll assess,” said Lopa, who flew to Singapore from here to attend a business meeting with Jun Sy, who owns Tao Corp., the official distributor of Energen.
“I guess when we get back that’s the first thing in my agenda. We’ll talk and see if the desired exposure and product image that they wanted to develop has been achieved and up to what level,” said Lopa.
“Right now I really don’t know because every time I ask Mr. (Jun) Sy he always says we’ll see what happens after the tournament,” he added.
Lopa, however, stressed Energen is happy with the Nationals stint in the Fiba Asia tilt as well as the product value and exposure.
“I’m very happy with the way the team performed despite the much shorter time because we didn’t like the schedule of FIBA-Asia being too close with the NCAA and UAAP,” said Lopa.
“At least, the branding of the team with Energen is good and we were very happy with that,” he added.
It was the second fourth place finish by the Nationals in the event.