The first and last time the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) had a women’s division was 10 years ago during the term of Yeng Guiao as commissioner.

If memory serves me right, it was also the only time a commercial league for women’s basketball ever existed.

“That was back in l998, before I was offered to coach the RFM-Swift team in the PBA. Also part of my expansion plan was the formation of a junior division,” said Yeng as he mentioned several players, now in the Philippine Basketball Association, who played in that division.

James Yap and Paul Artadi were among them.

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I had pulled Yeng aside after his meeting with former national coaches Robert Jaworski, Jong Uichico, Norman Black and Chot Reyes at the Japanese restaurant of the Edsa Plaza Hotel in Mandaluyong City to ask him about the women’s league.

Earlier that Monday, I attended a press conference hosted by PBL chair Mikee Romero to launch the WPBL (Women’s PBL), his baby. Mikee, according to former SBP executive director Pato Gregorio, has been given the task of developing women’s basketball by the the SBP board.

Before he quit his SBP post and joined Smart Communications, Pato was trying to put together a women’s league under Fritz Gaston. But Pato left the SBP even before the league could take shape.

Through the WPBL, Pato’s vision was realized, although another man now stood at the helm of the league.

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Mikee and PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad said the PBL will only guide the women’s league in its infant stages. When it becomes steady and old enough to operate on its own, the WPBL will be weaned from the PBL and become fully independent.

The WPBL will have its own board, separate from that of the PBL, and commissioner, who will be named soon.

“It is going to be a league of their own,” said Chino, citing the movie “A League of their Own,” starring Oscar winner Geena Davis.

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Yeng must have noticed me scrutinizing him from head to toe because he joked about making a fashion statement. He was garbed in white barong tagalog, sleeves folded, maong pants and leather moccasins. He also wore a baseball cap.

Except for the cap and the shoes, Sta. Lucia Realty’s Kelly Williams also wore the same costume in last season’s PBA Awards Night where he was proclaimed MVP.

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Even if they were hopeful, neither Chino, Mikee nor Pato expected such an enthusiastic response from the basketball community over the “rebirth” of the women’s league.

Ateneo Lady Eagles team manager Joel Lopa, who has a daughter playing in the seniors, is elated that local women’s basketball “has finally evolved into a commercial league where players can go after graduation.”

Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines president Chito Narvasa, whose Muscle Tape product will be carried by the Lyceum players, said it is only fair that women be given the same opportunity as the men in basketball.

The WPBL will be school-based, like most of the teams in the PBL. In addition to Ateneo de Manila University and Lyceum of the Philippines University, also in the league’s initial list of teams are University of the Philippines, which is sponsored by Smart, Far Eastern University (Oracle Residences) and De La Salle University (RFM-Swift). Two other squads are still on hold—College of St. Benilde to be sponsored by Pharex and St. Scholastica’s College, to be sponsored by Bacchus.

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The living legend, former senator Sonny Jaworski, said it was the first time he had been invited to a meeting like the one called by Yeng.

“I thought he was going to ask me if I was still in shape—if I could suit up for the national team he was forming,” he said, as he took a deep breath and expanded his chest muscles.

“As you can see, I’m still in shape.”

The Big J, whose RP team took the silver medal in the l990 Beijing Asian Games, said he was not against the inclusion of naturalized cagers in the team but warned against legal impediments.

He is also not against a foreign coach holding clinics and seminars for local coaches to share his technological know-how.