Dynamic duo gets job done in NCAA

Tito S. Talao
Tempo
September 25, 2007

They are not exactly Starsky and Hutch. But they’ve kept peace and order reigning through most part of the 83rd NCAA basketball tournament without losing either their sanity or their sense of humor.

And in yesterday’s Game One of the NCAA Finals between defending champion San Beda and multi-titled Letran, Chito Narvasa, the league commissioner, and Alfrancis Chua, his deputy and technical committee chief, sat together at ringside at the packed Big Dome, surveying their handiwork.

Narvasa, who coached Purefoods and Shell in the Philippine Basketball Association, and Chua, who handled Sta. Lucia Realty, took time off their busy post-coaching schedules to manage the reins of the country’s premier collegiate league last June.

Now, three months later, they are perhaps three games away, at the most, at bidding goodbye to the best seats in the house.

"Napakagaan, napakadali," said Narvasa. "So much of the job was made easy by the support given by everyone, from the schools to the management committee, from the coaches to the players."

Chua agreed. "Even the referees played a big part," he said.

Narvasa added: "There were controversies along the way, yes. But all the schools put the interest of the league above their own when the hour of reckoning came. They bonded together when it became really necessary. And that is what made this job so rewarding, so enriching."

A second deputy, Tani Gonzales, also played a crucial role in the overall success of the commissioner, said Narvasa.

"Sila ang gumapang, kung baga, to get the program going."

"Masaya ang grupo namin," Chua said. "Me kanya-kanyang role lahat. At nag-aalalayan sa isa’t isa."

As the drums started rolling in deafening crescendo, signaling the entry of the Red Lions and the Knights, Narvasa was asked whether the thunderous beat could lure him back for a second term.

"No more," he said, laughing. "This is for one season only. We are just grateful to have such a good time."

Jose Rizal, this year’s host, pulled off a big coup when it succeeded in convincing Narvasa to take on the commissioner’s post.

It will now be up to Mapua next year, if it so chooses, to get the ex-Atenean – and with him Chua, the former Santo Tomas Glowing Goldie – back in the fold.


A dynamic duo, after all, doesn’t come along everyday.