MVP joins FIBA board; Canlas keeps post

MANILA, Philippines - For the first time in a long, long while, a Filipino will sit on the FIBA Central Board.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Manny V. Pangilinan will serve a term of office from 2014 to 2019 together with president Horacio Muratore, secretary general Patrick Bauhmann and 26 others who were elected to the board.

“Excellent meeting, full agenda. Credit goes to Messrs. Bauhmann & Muratore. FIBA Board a United Nations of Basketball,” said Pangilinan on his Twitter account after the FIBA meeting in Madrid Saturday where two other Filipinos were elected to key positions.

Renowned Filipino doctor Raul Canlas retained his spot in the Medical Commission while Atty. Aga Francisco was elected to the Legal Commission of the cage body made up of 214 national federations from around the world.

On Aug. 29 during the FIBA World Congress in Seville, Muratore, from Argentina, was elected by acclamation to succeed Yvan Mainini.

Twelve Continental zone representatives made the board in that Seville meeting attended by 116 national federations, and these were Anibal Manave (Moz) and Clotaire Celestine Adjanohoun (Ben) of FIBA Africa, Jim Tooley (USA), Michelle O’Keefe (Can) and Marcelo Bedoya (Par) of FIBA Americas, Tian Xiao (Chn) of FIBA Asia, Jose Luis-Saez (Esp), Cyriel Coomans (Bel), Lena Wallin-Kantzy (Swe) and Jean-Pierre Siutat (Fra) of FIBA Europe, and Scott Derwin (Aus) and Deborah K Shoniber (Mis) of FIBA Oceania.

Automatically making the board with the FIBA president and secretary general were the FIBA continental zone presidents Hamane Niang (Mli) of Africa, Usie Richards (USV) of the Americas, Sheikh Saud Bin Ali Al-Thani (Qat) of Asia, Turgay Demirel (Tur) of Europe and Burton Shipley (NZL) of Oceania. 

Ingo Weiss, meanwhile, was tapped to take over the position of treasurer from Manfred Stroher, who retired after more than 40 years of service to FIBA. Weiss was the 13th member elected to the Central Board in the Seville congress.

It was during the course of the World Cup group plays in Seville when Bauhmann told Pangilinan that he will personally nominate him to the Central Board in its Sept. 13 meeting.

As Pangilinan accepted the nomination and got elected, FIBA Asia got another seat on the FIBA Central Board aside from those of the FIBA Asia president Tian Xiao.

Pangilinan is the first Filipino to sit on the FIBA Central Board after the late Gonzalo Puyat II, the Basketball Association of the Philippines chief from 1969 to 1995 who served as FIBA president from 1976 to 1984.

Under his presidency, Puyat brought the World Championship to Manila in 1978, the last time the Philippines played in the world joust until its return in the 2014 Spanish conclave.

Pangilinan hopes to bring the World Cup back in the Philippines in 2019. This is highly possible with  SBP representations in the ongoing FIBA seminar in hosting in Madrid.