Finally, some non-Japeth Aguilar PBA news: Sta. Lucia made trades over the last couple of days to dump salary, shipping off point guard Denok Miranda to San Miguel yesterday, before sending their team captain Dennis Espino to the Coca-Cola Tigers. The Realtors received draft picks from both transactions, with back-up big man Jason Misolas also coming on-board from the Tigers. I’ve also heard rumors that Bitoy Omolon will be traded next.

It’s no secret that the corporation behind the team has been affected by the economic downturn. The real estate sector, in particular, has been hard-hit by the financial crisis especially because of the credit crunch. Last year, the corporation underwent corporate restructuring and reported a loss of P74.6-million from January to September, mostly due to operational costs and taxes.

While I hate teams trading off players for nothing, I have to say that Sta. Lucia so far is going about their salary reduction very smartly. They replaced Miranda with underrated (and cheaper) guys like Chris Pacana and Josh Urbiztondo. The loss of Espino shouldn’t hurt that much either, since he splits minutes with Marlou Aquino; when you’re belt-tightening, there’s really no good reason to pay both of your centers max money. Omolon’s exit, meanwhile, should be mitigated by the arrival of Gabby Espinas. They also smartly traded their assets for future picks, so that should help.

The best thing about their moves so far is that they didn’t touch their core of Kelly Williams, Ryan Reyes, and Joseph Yeo, or at least not yet. I’m a big fan of Coach Boyet Fernandez, and if Williams and Reyes come back healthy (big ifs), I couldn’t see how they can’t still remain competitive.

Hopefully, though, the Sta. Lucia downturn is only temporary. They’ve never been the richest of teams, but they always did right by players – remember how the team shouldered Kelly Williams’ medical expenses and signed him to a new max deal despite his sickness? The company reported that they ended the first half of 2009 in the black, with net income of P5.29-million compared to P85.02-million in losses in the same period last year.

UPDATE: Going by Rey Joble's latest report on the Sta. Lucia situation, it looks like Bitoy Omolon will not be traded... yet. This is great news for Realtors fans, as Rafe Bartholomew pointed out in a couple of tweets: "Omolon is really key to Boyet's man-to-man pressure. Espinas is similarly long and athletic, but he doesn't seem aggressive. When SLR looks good, it's often because Bitoy is making things happen."