Salud to step down as PBA commissioner

MANILA, Philippines - Chito Salud, the eighth commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association, is quitting his post at the end of the current PBA season, serving the league for five seasons after succeeding Sonny Barrios in 2010.

 Salud has informed members of the PBA board of governors of his plan to resign which he is set to formally announce in a press conference tomorrow.

 “He’s long been thinking of it, believing he has done his share, and it’s time to pass the baton,” said a PBA source to The STAR.

“He’s announcing his resignation early so as not to create a vacuum in the position. He wants to give the board enough time to groom the new commissioner. He’s willing to train his would-be replacement for the remainder of the current season,” the same source said.

Salud, a lawyer who has also served as president of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. and the Natural Resources Development Corp., is the PBA’s eighth commissioner after Leo Prieto, Mariano Yenko, his father Rudy Salud, Rey Marquez, Jun Bernardino, Noli Eala and Barrios.

He succeeded Barrios on Aug. 26, 2010 and, under his term, saw the league enjoy one banner year after another. Under his watch, the PBA players steered the Philippines back to the FIBA World Cup last year after 36 long years of absence.

It’s also under his reign when Asia’s first play-for-pay loop expanded to a 12-team league with the addition of two expansion teams in Kia Motors and Blackwater.

The league has kept a good healthy balance at least among the old member teams with Salud questioning what he deemed as one-sided trade deals.

Under his term, trade transactions are subject to the approval of his office.

Prior to the formation of the national team for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship, Salud was able to invite team owners to sit down together in a meeting and discuss key issues, including participation of PBA players in international competitions. It was the first gathering of PBA team owners in a long, long while.

In Salud’s second year as league commissioner in 2012, the PBA hit the P100-million mark in gate receipts for the first time ever.

From P90 million the previous year, the league grossed P114 million for the 37th PBA season, a big improvement brought about, among others, by emerging talent from the draft, a novel match-up format in the playoffs, and dramatic championships.

The PBA also raked in a whopping gross sale of over P200 million under Salud’s stewardship.

But the league hasn’t been spared problems and controversies under Salud.

For one, officiating was and is still always an issue.

Salud took full responsibility for a Dubai trip mess where most of members of the Talk n Text team were bumped off on a flight back to the Philippines.

Last year, the PBA board scrapped the lottery for the PBA draft first pick following the controversial draw by Salud in the lottery between Globalport and Rain or Shine.