Noli Eala’s twitter account is mostly harmless, containing updates on his activities as executive director of the country’s national basketball program. Tonight, however, he posted this very interesting tweet: “Some UAAP refs don't deserve to officiate there. They are weak in fundamentals, outdated in interpretation and clearly out of shape.”



Now, he might be perfectly accurate in his assessment, but when one looks at it a little deeper, you’ll realize why this guy is out of line.

Rumors abound that Manny Pangilinan, the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas president and Eala’s principal, has been lobbying for the UAAP to use SBP referees for the league’s basketball tournament, but this season’s commissioner, Joe Lipa, and the rest of the league has resisted the advances. Eala himself was embroiled in a similar controversy during the finals of the NCAA last year, after he called up PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad to discuss the performance of the PBL referees who were working the NCAA finals. Pangilinan is a known supporter of the San Beda Red Lions, who were to play the Jose Rizal Heavy Bombers in the deciding game of the finals series.

(I should add that Quinito Henson, everyone’s favorite columnist, did his best to whitewash the whole incident as a mere misunderstanding.)

Then again, Eala has a penchant for embarrassing himself in public. A few weeks ago, in the middle of the latest BAP brouhaha, there were reports that Powerade Team Pilipinas manager JB Baylon had met with Graham Lim and Go Teng Kok. Instead of handling the matter internally, as Baylon, PBA board chairman Joaqui Trillo, and the rest of the board eventually did, Eala raised a stink in the media – he’s a grandstander worthy of the worst politicians – and embarrassed himself and the SBP.

But hey, maybe having Eala on Twitter is a net positive. At the very least, it gives us hope that he’ll be posting his next crappy love letter online, in a Twitter direct message.