MANILA, Philippines—With a heavy heart, the PBA board of governors Sunday accepted the resignation of league commissioner Chito Salud, who emphasized that his decision was “not about me, but the future of the PBA.”
In a brief press conference between games last night at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, Salud said “this is the right time to pass the baton [to someone] with a fresh voice, fresh ideas, to take this league to greater heights.”
News of Salud’s decision to step down at the end of the current season first broke Friday night after he met with his staff and said his goodbye. He would have spent five years at the helm of Asia’s pioneering professional cage league by the time the third conference closed.
“The PBA [now] is stronger and more relevant than ever,” Salud said during the conference attended by all the alternate board members and led by PLDT representative and board chair Patrick “Pato” Gregorio.
“I think this is proof of our support to our commissioner,” Gregorio said. “Our presence here means that we are happy with how he performed in the last five years.”
Gregorio said a board meeting scheduled for Feb. 26 will come up with the criteria for the selection of Salud’s replacement. He added that the new commissioner will be named before the ongoing Commissioner’s Cup ends.
Under Salud’s watch, the PBA expanded to an all-time high of 12 teams with the entry of KIA Motors and Blackwater.
There was hardly a trace of happiness in the way Salud talked yesterday, and he quashed all suggestions that the next step for him would be to seek public office.
“No, let’s leave that to the experts,” he said.
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