A Former PBA Barker's Frustrations

Rolly Manlapaz

Even though I have been living in the US for the past 10 months, I still get updated about the PBA through my social media accounts and the internet that we have at home.

There have been a lot of problems the PBA has been facing ever since I left, from the poor attendance to the officiating, the TV coverage and the leadership of commissioner Chito Narvasa.

But more than those that I mentioned, one thing that the PBA lacks these days is the way the coliseum announcers have been performing.

Many PBA fans have been missing the booming voice of Rolly Manlapaz, who served as PBA barker from 2003 until 2014 and has since been plying his trade in the college leagues.

One time, Rolly told me that the main reason why he left the PBA was that the league discourages barkers like him to adlib, meaning the barkers should follow the instructions set by the PBA technical committee.

When Narvasa was tapped to replace Chito Salud as PBA Commissioner, I expected him to bring back Rolly as barker but it seems that he hasn't been able to do that.

The PBA's pioneer barker Vince de Guzman or Vince St. Price, as he was known on radio, left the league in 2004 to settle for good in the US and since then, only Rolly, Boyet Sison and Noel Zarate have somewhat lived up to Vince's standards as barker.

At present, Noel still does barker duties for the PBA and I still admire his booming voice especially when he was the barker in a Christmas Day game between Ginebra and Star in 2015.

Noel Zarate (left)


Another good barker is Mark Luzon who should be given some assignments occasionally in the PBA D League in place of Noel Vilar who isn't that lively, honestly.

Mark Luzon with Vince St. Price during the latter's visit to Manila recently
Aside from Rolly, Boyet has been missed as a barker ever since the latter concentrated full-time on his news anchoring duties on ANC. Boyet and Noel started out as sportscasters and that helped them a lot when they became PBA barkers.

Boyet Sison

The PBA barker I really hate is Rob Evangelista who does not adlib a lot unlike the others. He is more fit to be a DJ and a songwriter. He is best remembered for writing the theme song of Raffy Tulfo's radio show Wanted sa Radyo, which incidentally, airs before the PBA radio coverage on Radyo Singko on FM.

It's sad that the PBA does not really give its coliseum barkers a lot of attention and respect. The barkers add life to the game just like the players. And the barker helps get the fans on their feet every time a great play is made.

I hope Commissioner Narvasa and the PBA technical committee realize this.



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