Sports: Barako Bull’s Role As Conduit

Since Barako Bull (formerly Air21/FedEx) is fond of trading its marquee players now and then, the team is headed to become a failure once again since the franchise joined the league way back in 2002 after the returning Tanduay ballclub (1999-2002) of Lucio Tan sold the team to Bert Lina’s FedEx Group for a reported sum of P60-75 million.

Gone were the likes of former franchise players in Arwind Santos, Japeth Aguilar, Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Gary David, Ranidel De Ocampo, Siverino Baclao, Renren Ritualo, Cyrus Baguio, Alex Cabagnot, Jay Washington, and Macmac Cardona although the last two never played a single game for the then Air21 quintet after they were traded to Talk ‘N Text immediately after the 2005 Philippine Basketball Association Draft for Yancy De Ocampo and Patrick Fran.

Right now, the Energy of Coach Junel Baculi have veterans Danny Seigle, Willie Miller, Wynne Arboleda, Don Allado, Mick Pennisi, Sunday Salvacion, Dorian Pena, Jondan Salvador, Leo Avenido, and Leo Najorda in the lineup as well as newcomers Jimbo Aquino, Lou Gatumbato, rookies Ken Acibar and Paul Sorongon.

Lately, Chico Lanete joined the ballclub after Barako Bull traded Paul Artadi to the Meralco Bolts for the journeyman pointguard as well as former Ginebra reserve Reil Cervantes and balik-Air21 forward Ronald Tubid of Oton town in Iloilo, two players involved in a three-team player swap consummated just last week.

Tubid and the rookie Cervantes (plus a future Barangay Ginebra pick) were shipped to Barako Bull for freshman Dylan Ababou and erstwhile B-Meg big man Kerby Raymundo while another former Air21 player in JC Intal of the Kings went to the Llamados alongside a draft consideration for next season with the Energy Food And Drinks, Inc ballclub acting as a conduit.

This is so since the PBA won’t allow sister teams like the San Miguel Corporation group (Ginebra, Petron and B-Meg), the Linaheim Group of Companies (Barako Bull and Air21-the former Shopinas.com quintet) as well as the Manny V Pangilinan group (Meralco and TNT) from consummating trades within their group. That means a conduit (third party) will be required to legalize the transaction.

On January 26, 2009, the team (then known as Burger King) traded Allado and KG Canaleta to Purefoods (now B-Meg) for a future rookie pick of the Llamados, guard Lanete, Beau Belga and Chad Alonzo and then dealt Doug Kramer, Intal and eventually Lanete to Ginebra for the Kings’ 2012 and 2013 first round rookie selections.

After that, Santos was shipped to San Miguel (now Petron) for Marc Pingris and Ilonggo Ken Bono before the 2009 No. 1 pick in Aguilar was traded to TNT and loaned to Smart Gilas after only one game with the team for the Tropang Texters’ first round draft choices in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014, They also swapped Cabagnot (obtained from Coke for David) to SMB for Mike Cortez.

When the team drafted Baclao, Al-Hussaini and Rey Guevarra with the 1-2-3 picks of the 2010 PBA Draft, the team ultimately shipped the three top rookies to SMB for Seigle, Pena, Artadi and Dondon Hontiveros after the 2010-11 Philippine Cup wars and just a single game into the import-laced Commissioner’s Cup before releasing back Hontiveros (and Carlo Sharma, too!) to SMB for Salvacion and Pennisi at the start of the PBA’s current 37th season.

And when former B-Meg frontliner and 2010 Rookie of the Year winner Rico Maierhofer was dealt to Ginebra, Barako Bull once again acted as a conduit by shipping freshman Allein Maliksi along with Maeirhofer to the Kings in exchange for Jimbo Aquino and the crowd favorite’s 2013 first round rookie choice while Yancy De Ocampo went to B-Meg plus Ginebra’s second round selection in 2012.

As I see it, the Lina Group is making a mockery of the PBA system when it comes to player trades particularly in cases involving SMC teams. In fact, Air21’s negative vote in the board as to the entry of Phoenix Fuels in the pro league last year resulted in Shopinas.com’s (now renamed to Air21, whew!) taking over the defunct Red Bull franchise of Photokina Marketing for the reason that the PBA road game sponsor’s entry into the league would be in conflict with SMB being renamed to Petron, commercial-wise.

Or maybe, SMC indirectly supported the Lina Group’s purchase of Red Bull while preventing Phoenix Fuel’s entry via Air21’s vote of no confidence thus a win-win result for both sides. However, yours truly sees it as detrimental to the best interest of the PBA particularly for independent ballclubs like Alaska, Rain or Shine and Powerade.*
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