The economic downturn is affecting everyone, and it has hit local amateur commercial basketball particularly hard. The Philippine Basketball League, the traditional breeding ground for Philippine basketball's rising stars, beginning their new tournament while reeling from the departure of two members (Burger King and Toyota Otis), are down to five teams.

It makes sense. Unlike the PBA, the PBL is truly borne out of love: companies pay teams to play in near-empty arenas and there is next to no one watching on television.

This is Fire Quinito's primer for each team, with a different twist: a profile of each team owner. Who are they, and what do they do? And why the hell are they still in the PBL?

Danding Cojuangco and his Magnolia Purewater Wizards is next.



Danding Cojuangco was the man originally nicknamed "Pacman", not for his sporting exploits, but because of his penchant for gobbling up companies. Angela Stuart-Santiago, writing about Ninoy Aquino's assassination and Cojuangco's influence during Martial Law, cited a 1991 Wall Street journal report on the man:

At the height of cronyism in the Philippines, Cojuangco controlled $1.5 billion in corporate assets, an amount estimated to equal 25% of the country’s GNP. He headed an agricultural and industrial conglomerate with interests in diverse areas as coconut, sugar, agri-business, banking, and a host of others. The *Wall Street Journal* observed that Cojuangco attempted to create “cartels in rice, sugar, flour, groceries, and soft drinks but ran out of time.” Referring to Cojuangco’s tendency to create monopolies in the industries where he had investments, a journalist gave him the nickname Pacman, a reference to the computer game where the object is to eat up as much as you can. Cojuangco’s personal net worth was estimated at $500 million, making him among the country’s richest men.

So this dossier would only included sports-related matters, because writing about everything evil Cojuangco ever did would need a blog unto its own.

Cojuangco is a sports nut, so while San Miguel is not in the list of the top 10 television advertisers according to Nielsen, the conglomerate pours its massive marketing budget into sports, owning three PBA team and a PBL team, signing up Manny Pacquiao, Efren "Bata" Reyes, and other sports personalities to endorsement deals, and sponsoring all kinds of sports events.

He was project director for the Philippine basketball team, and to give credit where it's due, the national team coached by Ron Jacobs won the 1985 Asian Basketball Confederation (now Fiba-Asia) Championship in 1985 over China, our country's last Asian-level basketball championship. It should be noted, however, that the team also had three naturalized Americans on the roster, Dennis Still, Jeff Moore, and current San Antonio Spurs assistant Chip Engelland. Cojuangco's original strategy, however, included assembling a team of 8 Americans on the roster (including Still and Moore), underlining his win-at-all-costs strategy.

Here are a few more sports-related items about Danding:

• Cojuangco came up with the idea of the Philippine Amateur Basketball League, which was later rechristened the PBL. It was an ingenious way to pay amateur basketball players.


• He was also heavily involved in the De La Salle University basketball program in the '80s. He handpicked former UE Red Warriors coach Pilo Pumaren to coach the team. Pumaren's sons, Derrick, Franz, and Dindo, would also be heavily involved in the program. Franz and Dindo starred for the Archers before going on to have illustrious PBA careers. Derrick and Franz both went on to coach the team, while Dindo signed up to be an assistant for Franz this year.


• He is an avid horseowner, and several years ago there was buzz about how Danding's horses even had their own swimming pool, underscoring the fact that he treated his horses much better than the peasants who work his haciendas. A story about the death of his would get ink in a major daily, but the accusations of agrarian-related violence against him? Not so much.

There are a bunch of interesting, apocryphal stories I've heard over the years in various instances, with different versions, so take these with a grain of salt:

• The Pumaren family has fallen out of favor with Cojuangco, to the point that he no longer supports the Green Archers (who are now backstopped by Enrique Razon Jr.). The speculation is that this was because when Cojuangco regained control of San Miguel in 1997 and installed Ron Jacobs as coach of the basketball team ousting Norman Black, Franz Pumaren chose to leave with Black. However, others point out that the reason Franz is persona non grata to Danding is because Franz once screwed around with one of Danding's daughters or nieces. I asked a friend who would know things about the Cojuangco family, and he replied, "It's possible."


• Back in the '80s, the Archers had a steaming and often violent rivalry with their crosstown rivals Letran in the NCAA. The offcourt rivalry heated up so much that rumbles were commonplace, and during the games, the Letran crowd would chant, "Manalo, matalo, bugbog kayo." These guys hated each other so much they didn't care anymore whether they won or lost. The tough guys from Letran beat up on the rich La Salle kids.
  
  Anyway, the story goes that the next game, Danding Cojuangco dispatched his goons from his haciendas in Tarlac to beat up on Knights supporters. I just find it funny that Danding, who was part of Marcos' inner circle and was one of the most powerful men in the country, would be bothered enough to dispatch his henchmen for a stupid college basketball game. Tells you all you need to know about the man. Because of the escalation of violence between the two schools, La Salle left the NCAA and joined the UAAP some years later.


• Ok, this isn't apocryphal, but a couple of years ago, I was watching a PBA game at the Araneta Coliseum and ran into Danding Cojuangco and his posse during halftime. I was on my way out from Starbucks and was in line to grab a sandwich, and Danding was standing a few feet away. He was eating his sandwich standing up, because there was nowhere to seat, and he probably didn't want to go back to his courtside seat just to eat his sandwich. I thought it was funny; can you imagine standing a few feet away as Darth Vader ate his sandwich?