MANILA, Philippines—Based on his record, Serbian basketball coach Rajko Toroman is good, but he's no magician.

In my view, the Philippines will fail again in its mission to qualify for the 2010 World Championship and the 2012 London Olympic Games given the fact that our players lack the needed height and vast international experience.

Even though Toroman piloted the Iranian basketball team to a surprising 11th place in the recent Beijing Olympics, his appointment by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to a three-year contract as national basketball team project director last Tuesday has already met strong opposition from members of the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines.

Toroman's appointment raises more questions than it answers, virtually stirring a hornet's nest.

Complicating matters is the fact that the Serbian could end up coaching the national team.

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Straight-shooting Yeng Guiao, the newly designated head coach of the PBA-backed national team, said Toroman's appointment was unfair to the local coaches.

Said the 47-year-old Guiao: "We have to make sure that local coaches have a fair chance of coaching the national team. It is a singular honor and should not be taken away from us."

Guiao is a board member and former president of the BCAP, from 1997-1999. He is also the head coach of the Red Bull Barako in the Philippine Basketball Association.

The BCAP is slated to hold a meeting on Monday to discuss the SBP decision to hire Toroman.

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SBP executive director Noli Eala said Toroman is tasked to put together a program for the national team.

"We will study his program and decide what to do after that," explained Eala, a former PBA commissioner. "We are not discounting the possibility of Toroman coaching but all that will come after we see his program. Why don't we give change a chance?"

However, under Philippine labor laws, hiring a foreign worker can be done only if there is no available talent in the country and provided he or she has new technology or system that is not yet known in our country. There should be transfer of technology.

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Guiao stressed that another real problem we have to accept is the Filipinos' height disadvantage.

That's why he has batted for the inclusion of tall, fast and hefty naturalized players to beef up the RP lineup.

The feisty coach added that the money allotted for Toroman could be spent more wisely by hiring at least two naturalized cagers.

Historically, Philippine basketball made its presence felt during the 1980s, when American coach Ron Jacobs mentored the national team that included naturalized players like sweet-shooting Chip Engelland, defensive star Dennis Still and playmaker Jeff Moore.

Jacobs, coach of Northern Cement Consolidated basketball team, resurrected the dash-and-dribble sport in the country by winning many international titles, such as the 1982 Asian Youth basketball championship, which had Hector Calma and Samboy Lim on the roster; and the 1985 Asian Basketball Confederation (now the FIBA-Asia) tournament with a team led by dead shot Allan Caidic and Moore, Still and Engelland.

Since then, no Filipino coach has ever won a high-impact title for the national team in the international scene.

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"If it's good for Philippine basketball, then let's give it a try," said Moying Martelino, longtime secretary general of the Basketball Association of the Philippines and former secretary general of the ABC.

Jacobs revolutionized the game of basketball in the country, Martelino added.

Toroman's primary goal is to form the national team for the 2010 Asian Games and the 2012 London Olympics while Guiao's main objective is to prepare the RP five for the 2009 FIBA-Asia Championship, the qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Basketball Championship.