Sports Weekly Magazine
September 22-29, 1978
(Editor’s Note: With this article Sports Weekly magazine starts a series on an oft-repeated question among fans of local bigtime basketball: how much do the players of the different teams in the PBA really get? Featured this week are the members of the Crispa Redmanizers ballclub, the defending champion team in the ongoing PBA second conference.)
Because they ride around in flashy cars, go to discos at the drop of John Travolta’s name and dress as if they are part owners of men’s boutiques, the Crispa Redmanizers almost always strike people as a bunch of ballplayers who have struck oil or have got the Shah of Iran for a godfather.
Gushed a fan marveling at Bogs Adornado’s sleek Mustang: “Gee, Bogs must really be getting a lot from Danny Floro.”
Another, noting Atoy Co’s imported T-shirts, wondered out loud how much the Crispa hotshot is getting now to be able to afford such highly-durable shirts. “I bet,” he told a friend, “Atoy is getting no less than Php 10,000 a month.”
It probably will surprise this fan that according to official records in the Games and Amusements Board, Atoy Co and Bogs Adornado do not even get Php 5,000 a month and that they are not the highest paid players of the Crispa ballclub.
As per the figures on PBA player salaries gathered by SWM from official public records in the GAB< the monthly salaries of Co and Adorando, the team’s most popular players, are only Php 2,000.
That’s right, Virginia, only Php 2,000.
Aside from the two, other Crispa players in the Php 2,000 a month bracket are Philip Cezar, Rey Franco, Abet Guidaben, Jaime Javier, Rey Pages, Rudy Soriano, Willie Tanduyan and Tito Varela.
Listed as receiving salaries of Php 1,500 a month are Armando Torres, Freddie Hubalde, Bernie Fabiosa and Virgilio (Bong) Dela Cruz.
As for the Crispa player with the lowest pay scale – Php 1,000 a month – this turned out to be the inactive and reportedly the soon-to-be-sold Cristino Calilan.
And who’s the Redmanizer with the highest pay? According to the Crispa record submitted to the GAB, this is guard Gregorio (Joy) Dionisio, whose salary is Php 2,475 a month.
Viewing the Crispa payroll in the light of today’s soaring price scales of players, it would seem as if the Redmanizers are underpaid. But then, one studies when the contracts of the team’s well-known players began and one finds out that almost all of them began receiving their Php 2,000 pay rate four years ago.
In the cases of Adornado, Co, Dela Cruz, Fabiosa, Franco, Guidaben, Hubalde, pages, Soriano, Torres and Varela, the GAB records showed that their present salaries date back four years ago – from April, 1975, the time when they signed up with Crispa. The four-year contracts expire on May 1, 1979.
Dionisio’s contract won’t run out until May 1, 1980, but like the rest, it also started four years ago – on April, 1975.
As for Calilan, his contract started April, 1977 and will expire on May 1, 1979.
Crispa’s rookie Tanduyan’s two-year contract started May 1, 1978 and won’t expire until January 1, 1980. It’s the same thing with Varela’s four-year contract, which according to the records, won’t expire until April 1, 1980.
The Crispa player with the shortest contract is Jaime Javier, whose one-year stint started February 1, 1978 and is good up to February 1, 1979.
Crispa players whose contracts will be expiring before the start of next year’s first conference are Adornado, Calilan, Cezar, Co, Dela Cruz, Fabiosa, Guidaben, Hubalde, Javier, Soriano and Pages.
The figures listed down in the GAB record on the salaries of the Crispa players were based on the contracts supplied to the board by the PBA. While perhaps many fans may find it unbelievable that the team’s big stars, notably Co, Adornado, Cezar, Hubalde, Soriano, Guidaben and Fabiosa, have not gotten salaries near the Php 8,000 a month deal which Manny Paner wangled from CFC, the fact remains that although incredible, the GAB figures are.
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