Tournament of the Philippines Leg 1 gets underway

The first step to the planned merger of two of the country’s amateur cage leagues –the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) and Liga Pilipinas -- is now shaping up as top honchos of this two commercial basketball institutions assured the staging of the Tournament of the Philippines Leg 1. The event gets underway Wednesday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium. Liga’s Trace Laguna Stallions square off with PBL’s Ascof Lagundi at 1:30 p.m. to open up hostilities of this merger that was created as a step towards the formation of an ambitious Developmental League. M.L. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala -Cebu Ninos take on ANI-FCA at 3:30 p.m. An opening ceremony will take place in between the games with telecommunications magnate and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) president Manny V. Pangilinan gracing the affair. Pangilinan, top honcho of Smart-Gilas national developmental team and Talk N Text in the Philippine Basketball Association, will also make the ceremonial toss. “I’m optimistic about the future that we will have a fruitful partnership," said Noli Eala, Liga Pilipinas CEO, in Tuesday’s Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum. “All team owners see the value of coming together and it’s just a matter of time that we are really organically merged into one." For the PBL, the longest-running amateur commercial league, the merger will be a good test. “We will see how we can work together, as a team, phase by phase," said PBL chairman Ding Camua of Pascual Laboratories in the same forum. “This is both of us working for the development of basketball." Five other teams are joining the fold—PBL’s Cobra and Liga’s Mandaue, Taguig, General Santos and Misamis Oriental. The four teams will play a single round-robin tournament until Friday with the top two placers battling for the Leg 1 championship where they can earn points en route to the national playoff down the road -- a Liga Pilipinas format. The tournament is expected to be finished by August as talks between PBL, Liga and the PBA is still ongoing. “Talks between the league and the PBA are ongoing so we can finish clearly the details of this partnership whether as a developmental league or any other kind of partnership," said Eala, also the executive director of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP). Incidentally, the SBP will be handling the officiating chores of the league as the PBL referees have also been absorbed by the said NSA for basketball. - RCJ, GMANews.TV