RUMOR: It took "whirlwind negotiations" lasting no more than two weeks to mend what initially appeared to be a permanent break in the relations between Ateneo and top patron Manny V. Pangilinan.
FACTS: Things happened so fast even Pangilinan couldn’t hide his surprise over the sudden turn of events that led him back into the arms of Ateneo, the same school he – it turned out grudgingly – had turned his back on just months earlier over differing stands on mining and other political issues.
According to school insiders, the reconciliation took roots less than two weeks ago when a fellow Ateneo alumni who bumped into Pangilinan offered to host the dinner that would allow the businessman-sportsman to meet with the school’s president, Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin.
The dinner pushed through a few days later, eventually hosted by Ateneo team manager Paolo Trillo, and it gave Pangilinan and Villarin the chance to sit down and talk for the first time since the falling-out in September that left the Blue Eagles without their biggest supporter.
“Even I was surprised at how fast all these happened,” Pangilinan admitted in an interview with TV5 on Monday night.
There was no doubt that Ateneo’s sports program had been suffering since the exit of Pangilinan, who, according to insiders in his camp, had been pouring at least P2 million a month – or around P25 million annually – into the team coffers to cover salaries of coaches, allowances of players, and other expenditures.
The school had set up a Basketball Endowment Fund, which it had hoped would sustain the program with donations from alumni, and had received several pledges of support. But one prominent alumnus was candid enough to admit that “pledges can’t run a successful basketball program.”
Still, Ateneo athletic director Ricky Palou insisted the return of Pangilinan as the team’s top supporter was never on the table when the business mogul met with Villarin over dinner, away from the prying eyes of the public and the media.
“Both parties were really feeling bad about the breakup,” Palou told Spin.ph. “From Ateneo’s point of view and I’m sure from MVP’s point of view, the parting wasn’t really nice. So iyon talaga ang gustong pag-usapan.”
The catalyst for MVP’s return, it turned out, was Bo Perasol, the coach handpicked by Pangilinan’s group to take over from Norman Black who, after signing a three-year deal with the team, immediately moved to have it rescinded after the falling-out between the school and Pangilinan.
Pangilinan, according to Villarin, offered to broker the talks between the school and Perasol.
“That was the starting point (for the negotiations),” Pangilinan admitted later.
Even Perasol expressed surprise, both at how quickly the negotiations were set up and at how fast everything fell into place.
“Tungkol dito (sa coaching job), mga wala pang dalawang linggo (ang negotiations). Mabilis lang. Siguro before that, I wasn’t aware baka naguusap na sila,” Perasol said.
But if there was one thing Perasol readily sensed, it was the sincerity on both sides as well as the willingness to make things happen. “Yung nag-uusap kami ni MVP and nag-uusap din kami ni Fr. Jet, I can sense that it was just a matter of time na eventually magkakaintindihan din sila,” he said.
“That’s my personal sense, na alam ko na ‘yung heart nila is in the right place.”
Just days after Spin.ph first reported the news that Perasol was back in the frame for the Ateneo job and that a reconciliation between MVP and the school was in order, came the official statement announcing Perasol's formal appointment as well as the return of Pangilinan as the team’s top backer.
After weeks of chaos, suddenly everything was right in the Blue Eagles’ world. And that can only be bad news for the rest of the UAAP.
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