There's value in PBA and SMC partnership, says Comm. Salud

(Updated 3:46pm) PBA commissioner Chito Salud issued a brief statement with regards to the possibility of a San Miguel Corporation withdrawal from the PBA, saying that the league and the SMC teams "have been together for a long, long time and that's valuable in every respect."

Comm. Chito Salud: Petron/SMC franchise's reputation is solid and unshakeable. I (cont) tl.gd/l9ik78

— pbaconnect (@pbaconnect) March 12, 2013

The commissioner was reacting to a reported statement by the San Miguel Corporation, released in the wake of his decision to ban Petron Blaze Boosters import Renaldo Balkman. SMC owns the Petron Blaze Boosters franchise, in addition to other fan favorites, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and the San Mig Coffee Mixers. In the supposed statement of SMC, the corporation said that while they "accept the decision to ban Mr. Balkman for life from the league," it was worried about the fact that "the incident has been blown out of proportion and has damaged our good name. "As such, given the possible long-term effect of this incident to the San Miguel organization's image….Management has decided to re-evaluate the company's continuing participation in the PBA." Comm. Salud however pointed out that "Petron/SMC franchise's reputation is solid and unshakeable. I respectfully disagree with anyone who will say otherwise, much more on the basis of an import's individual and singular act. "The SMC group is a great franchise run by great leaders. I know many of them personally and I only have great respect for them. Mr. Cojuangco and Mr. Ang are pillars of Philippine society who I have followed and admired ever since. The PBA and their franchise have been together for a long, long time and that's valuable in every respect." The news regarding SMC's decision to reassess their participation in the PBA has yet to be cascaded to their other teams. In San Mig Coffee's practice at the Ronac Center earlier today, it was business as usual as the team simply prepared for their upcoming game against the Meralco Bolts this Friday. Nothing was said about the SMC statement. - Carlo L. Pamintuan/AMD, GMA News