Ex-PBA chairman Pardo urges Alaska owner Uytengsu to back up claims

Former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) chairman Rene Pardo urged Alaska team owner Wilfred Steven Uytengsu to show solid evidence that would prove the latter's claim there were major violations in the implementation of the league's salary cap rules. "Instead of witch-hunting, it's upon him (Uytengsu) to submit pieces of evidence to the PBA Commissioner's Office for proper action," said Pardo, under whose term Asia's first ever play-for-pay league earned P90 million in gross receipts last season. Last Wednesday, Uytengsu claimed certain teams twisted the salary cap rules to become competitive. Uytengsu made the remark at a press conference where the Alaska franchise announced that the team has released long-time coach Tim Cone. Uytengsu dropped the bombshell when PBA board members, except Alaska's representative Joaqui Trillo, were in Hong Kong for the league's annual planning session. Meanwhile, Pardo insisted the Alaska team owner should have first raised the issue with the PBA board or to the Office of the Commissioner. "Why didn't they (Aces) do that when Mr. Trillo was the chairman? If they had qualms about the salary cap, they must deliver it in a proper forum and not in a media conference." Uytengsu didn't mention any particular PBA team he perceived to be violating the salary cap rules. Alaska's former star, Joe Devance, also asked to be released from the Aces despite receiving the maximum salary cap of P350,000. But Pardo said the versatile 6-foot-7 Filipino-American big man was later picked up by the B-MEG Llamados for the same maximum salary pay. "As far as we are concerned, Devance is just getting the maximum salary. We can't pay him more than that because that's the rule," said Pardo, who is B-MEG's board governor. Uytengsu had disclosed the possibility of Alaska leaving the PBA if the "problem" isn't addressed properly. "The reality is.... it's not a level playing field in the PBA," he said. "Somewhere down the road, if we see the foundation of the PBA to crumble beyond repair and where graft and corruption becomes the norm, I think that may be the time that we have to look elsewhere because I don't think that the PBA is a viable medium of entertainment." — JVP, GMA News