Purefoods gets back Altamirano

Purefoods, out to relive its glory days in the PBA, named the very coach who gave it its last championship – Eric Altamirano.

In a meeting late last night, Purefoods president Rene Montemayor, team manager Rene Pardo, board representative Butch Alejo and alternate board rep and former mentor Ely Capacio agreed to re-sign Altamirano to a one-year contract, ending a week-long search for a new coach after Derick Pumaren left to take over the helm of the Tanduay ballclub.

Sources in the Purefoods camp said Altamirano, who steered Purefoods to its last victory in the 1997 All Filipino Cup, was picked over the other aspirants because he would be bringing no staff to the ballclub. The normal practice in the trade is that a coach almost always brings along his staff into the team.
In this case, Altamirano will be assisted by Ryan Gregorio, who was hired by the team as assistant coach and who was one of his assistants when he piloted the team to victory four years ago.

"I’m excited in getting back to coaching," said Altamirano, adding that he was very grateful (to the management) for the renewed trust given him.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Duremdes is returning from the United States today to lend his presence on the Alaska table during the PBA Annual Draft at the Glorietta in Makati tomorrow.

But it doesn’t necessarily mean that he has decided to sign a contract extension with the Uytengsu franchise, and has turned down an offer from the Mobiline camp.

Mobiline officials are still hoping they can acquire the services of Duremdes although their Alaska counterparts have said they will exhaust all means to keep the 1998 MVP awardee in their fold.

A close friend of Duremdes didn’t discount the possibility of the player returning home ready to sign an offer sheet from Mobiline. There were reports that Duremdes met with Mobiline team owner Manny Pangilinan in the US.

The Piltel franchise has a standing offer of P42 million in actual pay plus millions more in bonus package in seven years for Duremdes. Alaska earlier announced it is matching the offer only to have second thoughts, saying it can’t give two certain items stipulated in the deal.

Duremdes’ player-agent Danny Espiritu said the two items’ worth is no less than P2 million.

Thus, the Alaska-Mobiline tug-of-war for the services of Duremdes is still on with barely 15 days left before the opening of the 2001 season.

Espiritu said Duremdes is attending the Annual Draft as required by the PBA Commissioner’s Office on all the teams’ star players. The player incurs a fine if he snubs the PBA exercise.

Bong Hawkins is another key Alaska player who remains without a contract. He’s now thinking of asking his release papers from the ballclub.

Alaska officials have been saying verbally they are offering Hawkins P18 million for three years but the team still has yet to offer the player a formal sheet.

"They were saying they want to sign up Duremdes first. But we’re running out of time and in the end, baka kami naman ang maipit. So hihingi na lang kami ng unconditional release," said Espiritu, who is also Hawkins’ player-agent.