I always felt that the sports media should do more vetting on Chito Salud, the new PBA commissioner, considering that the public knows little about the man who would be occupying one of the most important positions in Philippine sports. Fortunately, the Manila Bulletin’s Tito Talao came out with a hard-hitting report last week about the PBA’s new chief:

Salud arrived at around 10 a.m. (he had chicken sandwich and some fruits for lunch and siopao as an afternoon snack) and stayed in the room he occupied as deputy commissioner these past months, working on papers for most of the day before leaving at 6 p.m.

Wow, chicken sandwich and some fruits for lunch! Was it chicken fillet or chicken salad? And the siopao – was it asado or bola-bola? Was it one of those giant siopaos from a place like Emerald Garden?

Ok, so maybe Talao’s report wasn’t the eye-opening piece that I asked for, although to be fair, the piece would come in handy come Christmas time when Talao, the president of the PBA Press Corps, sends the Commissioner’s Office a solicitation letter for door prizes for the press corps Christmas party.

So I decided to do a little research myself, and found some interesting things about Angelico ‘Chito’ Tiu Salud. For example, did you know that he has been sitting on the board of Petron as an independent director since January 2009? Salud’s nomination to Petron coincided with San Miguel’s takeover of the company. Curiously, Salud’s father, former PBA Commissioner Rudy, is a close associate of San Miguel chairman Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco. The elder Salud served as Cojuangco’s campaign manager during the latter’s 1992 presidential run.

Given that Petron is currently controlled by San Miguel Corporation, which also owns three franchises in the PBA, I was surprised that this little detail hasn’t received more attention. It remains unclear whether Salud has resigned his position upon his ascension to the PBA commissionership, but his last nomination to the Petron board was in April. He was appointed deputy commissioner in June.



Petron board members: Danding Cojuangco, Ron W. Haddock, Estelito Mendoza, Bernardino Abes, and Salud

Salud’s bio in Petron’s 2009 annual report sheds more light about his professional background:

Angelico T. Salud serves as Independent Director of Petron Corporation since January 8, 2009. He is the Chairman of the Nomination Committee and a member of the Audit Committee and alternate member of the Executive Committee. He is currently a Legal Consultant at the Office of the Mayor of Makati City. He was formerly the President of the National Resources Development Corporation from October 2004 to March 2006; National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation from September 2000 to September 2004; and Home Development Mutual Fund from August to September 2000. A law practitioner, Mr. Salud has had extensive work experience in both government and private sectors. He is a graduate of a Bachelor of Science degree in Legal Management at the Ateneo de Manila University and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines.

Salud was initially appointed President of the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation, a government-owned and -controlled corporation, in September 2000 by former President Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada, who was Cojuangco’s vice-presidential running mate in 1992. Erap would be deposed a few months later during Edsa Dos, but Salud, curiously, retained his post at the NHMFC after Mike Defensor was appointed head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. A scathing article by Jullie Yap Daza about Defensor in 2002 alleged that Defensor had used his post to appoint his close friends to various positions in the housing portfolio. In the article, Daza said that Salud only retained his position because of the closeness of the Salud family to Defensor’s father, Mat.

When Defensor was replaced as housing czar by Vice President Noli de Castro, Salud’s stint at the NHMFC also came to the abrupt end. Soon after Defensor was appointed Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Salud was reunited with his old boss as president the Natural Resources Development Corporation, another GOCC.

It was at the NRDC where Salud would get a taste of controversy. Retired Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, who had been appointed by Arroyo as alternate ex-officio chairman of the NRDC, would butt heads with Defensor over a contract for replacement engines that were allegedly overpriced. Corpus, who resigned over the flap, accused Salud of trying to bribe him via another DENR official, Jun Lozada – yes, that Jun Lozada – with P10 million in exchange for his approval of the contract. Salud denied all charges.

Former Manila mayor Lito Atienza took over for Defensor at the DENR in 2006. Salud was promptly replaced at the NRDC by Don Ramon Bagatsing, a close Atienza ally, demonstrating that politicians taking over Cabinet posts basically appointed whoever they wanted in GOCCs almost regardless of qualification.

Curiously, Defensor was also nominated as director of Petron shortly before the government’s takeover. However, with Defensor out of the Cabinet, Salud would not get another appointment from the national government.

Instead, after not getting the commissionership of the PBA in 2007, Salud would be involved in Makati politics, serving first as a legal consultant for the Office of the Mayor. When the factions of then-Mayor Jojo Binay and then-Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado fell out, Salud found himself allied with Mercado. Initially, Salud was to run as Mercado’s vice mayor, but later dropped out in favor of Kid Peña, who ended up winning the race. Salud instead served as the spokesman for the tandem, while being part of his father’s organization called Volunteer Movement for Good Governance, which campaigned for Manny Villar, Bong Revilla, and Mercado.