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?

On tap, Mikee Romero and the newly-christened Oracle Residences Titans, winners of six straight PBL titles as the Harbour Centre Batang Pier.

Mikee Romero is youthful. Seriously, every story ever written about the man contains the word youthful in them. You would think that local sportswriter have not discovered [Shift + F7] yet. Do they still use typewriters?

A couple of years ago, I was browsing through the Inquirer (back when newspapers were still in vogue) and came across a full-page ad congratulating Romero for earning his Ph.D. from the International Management of Academy and Economics. I was impressed, even though I have never heard of that school before, because I figured a Ph.D. is still a Ph.D. Then a few months later I read that Melanie Marquez graduated cum laude from the very same school. Then I wasn't so impressed with Romero's Ph.D. anymore.

[Quick showbiz tangent: A few years ago, I was working for a showbiz news website, and we were gathering profile sheets on every celebrity we could find. A colleague handed me Melanie's profile, which she had filled out by hand, and pointed me to a section that said:

Favorite book: Bible [King James version]
Favorite author: King James

Awesome.]

I also discovered recently that IAME was a couple of blocks away from my aparment, and I pass by the place when grocery shopping. Let's just say that the facility is closer to AMA than AIM.

Anyway, Mikee Romero didn't come to the wealth he throws away in the PBL because of his business acumen; he is the son of the controversial businessman Reghis Romero II. Here are some highlights of R2's life:

• After former President Joseph Estrada forced the closure of the Manila Times after a series of critical reports from the paper, it was R2 who bought the paper from the Gokongweis.


• Romero was among the 20 hostages taken by Abu Sayyaf during the Dos Palmas attack. He claims that he was able to escape after a military operation, but everyone thinks he paid ransom.


• The land where Harbour Centre now stands used to be the infamous Smokey Mountain (the dump site, not the Can This Be Love? group). It was acquired by Romero's company after a joint-venture company with the National Housing Authority, where the company was tasked to build houses for Smokey Mountain residents. The company has done a terrible job holding up its end of the bargain, but the Supreme Court has upheld the legality of the project.


• Romero is a triathlete.


• Very recently, an ex-girlfriend of Romero came out accusing him of using her as a sex slave.

(Tomorrow, Bong Tan and the Cobra Energy Drink Warriors.)