Ced Domingo (background) played elsewhere in the last conference and is reportedly set for a comeback with Akari. And this could have forced the hand of Creamline management to look for a similar player. —PVL PHOTO
Bea de Leon and Denden Lazaro-Revilla will find their way to powerhouse Creamline starting the next Premier Volleyball League (PVL) season as their transfers to the Cool Smashers from sister team Choco Mucho was sealed on Thursday.
League president Ricky Palou vowed for no more sister team dealings to happen again starting in June, when PVL leadership comes up with a set of guidelines that will enforce a Draft proceeding, a team and salary cap, and trade rules to make sure that parity among monied teams and those who have less, stays.
“We have no rule on that as we speak,” Palou told the Inquirer over the phone when asked if his office was aware of the transfer of De Leon and Lazaro-Revilla to the already solid Creamline squad. “It was obviously done by sister teams, because they (Flying Titans) rarely used Bea (de Leon) under their new coach, and they (Cool Smashers) lost Ced (Domingo).
“So it was obviously a move to help a sister team out,” Palou went on. “Creamline knows that they need a middle (blocker) with Domingo out.”
Domingo is in Thailand playing for the Nakhon Ratchasima side in its local league, but reports said that the efficient middle blocker is set for a PVL return and will suit up for Akari, which also has a sister team in Nxled.
“In the future, when the Draft starts, there will surely be no trades between sister teams.”
Domingo left in October, with setter Jia de Guzman leaving earlier to play in Japan as an import. The Cool Smashers still went on to sweep the last All-Filipino Conference, but with the other teams shoring up their rosters using the disbanded F2 Logistics sweepstakes, Creamline has no choice but to strengthen its core.
“Right now we can do nothing about that if that is true,” Palou acknowledged when asked about the Domingo transfer, even as he rattled off some details of the Draft guidelines that he will present to the owners and will hopefully be put in effect in June.
Draft’s main purpose
“For sure, top picks will not be eligible for trades for whatever reason,” he said. “We don’t want what’s happening in the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) to happen to our league, when some teams trade off their top picks for reasons we all know. We don’t want less-monied teams to turn out to be selling players.
“As far as the PVL rules go, if you (player) are a high selection, you will stay with that team for at least two years,” he went on. “The purpose of the draft is to make teams at par with each other. At least two years (of staying there) for the top picks. “I want them to hold on to those players,” Palou declared. “There will be no selling of those players. And if that player will be traded after that, our office will make sure that it will be a fair trade.”
The Inquirer first came out with the PVL plan to enforce a Draft and salary caps as reported compensation on players have become a concern as far as the viability of the league for the long haul is concerned.
Palou later on did the rounds with team owners and said: “They all like the draft and the rules that we are going to apply. So it’s up to us (PVL) to come up with them and we are doing that as we speak.”
De Leon and Lazaro are reuniting with former Ateneo teammates Alyssa Valdez, Ella de Jesus, and later on De Guzman. The group won the first two UAAP titles of the Ateneo Blue Eagles in Seasons 76 and 77 in 2014 and 2015.
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The Flying Titans, meanwhile, will be coming off their best conference in finishing second to the Cool Smashers.