CHICAGO - I love Pido Jarencio. Let me get that personal bias out of the way.
Back in the 80s, years before my first newspaper job in 1993, I followed Pido's career at UST where he had some epic battles against Allan Caidic and the UE Warriors.
Jarencio, who would later etch his name as a Ginebra legend, was so relatable: An underdog who routinely overperformed to beat the odds.
READ Pido Jarencio apologizes to PBA, vows to say sorry to Robinson
Now the head coach of the Growling Tigers, Pido is also concurrently the team manager of NorthPort where he made the headlines last week for the wrong reasons.
Last Wednesday, after the Batang Pier's 112-104 loss to NLEX, Jarencio got into a torrid shouting match with Road Warriors import Thomas Robinson. In a video that has since gone viral, Jarencio's hallway outburst outside got so out of hand that commissioner Willie Marcial had to intervene.
Jarencio has since apologized to the league and said sorry to Robinson, saying he was merely standing up to a fellow NorthPort official who previously had a separate verbal spat with Robinson.
That excuse doesn't fly. This is not high school, you don't pick someone else's battles in the pros. And besides, that team executive, presumably Batang Pier governor Eric Arejola, is a grown man who can handle his business.
ROLE MODEL.
As the coach of the Growling Tigers, Pido is expected to set a good example. When conflict arises, maturity demands that he pacifies instead of fanning the flames.
Conceding that he did hurl verbal projectiles toward Robinson, Jarencio also said some of it were done in jest.
Well, it was a bad joke. Nobody's laughing.
It's hard to find any humor when the words 'bullet' and the inference of a 'wait outside' are being screamed in an angry tone.
I don't know if our penal code deems Jarencio's eruption as a grave threat but at the very least, his actions and words constitute conduct unbecoming of a team official and therefore detrimental to the PBA.
And that is why sorry, which is appreciated, is not good enough.
Five days after the incident, the league hasn't taken any action. Which is strange considering how the PBA has been so judiciously quick in recently suspending referees for missed calls and whatnot.
EVEN A SLAP IN THE WRIST IS NEEDED.
Jarencio shouldn't lose his jobs for this. Neither must he be fined excessively or banned for multiple games. But he shouldn't be allowed to skate away from any consequences, either.
Doing so would mean sending a terrible message that in the PBA, it's okay to imply a threat referencing a bullet, which often ejects out a gun.
"Pag aralan natin kung ano dapat i-sanction, kung meron man," Kume Marcial told reporters four days ago.
So Kume is not even sure if a punishment is necessary.
In my guest appearance at his Power and Play show last Saturday, former PBA commissioner Noli Eala voiced his opinion on the issue and said "something has to be done in terms of restoring order in the PBA."
I agree.
Clean up this mess, Mr. Marcial. And by that, I don't mean a whitewash.
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