Saturday, October 8, 2011

The PICAA

Originally posted by my brother, George Mercado, in mypba.com on August 22, 2006.


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I was a hoops junkie when I was a kid---blame it on our family business which was a news stand and that gave me the opportunity to read all the dailies at such a tender age. I even went out early morning, plying a paper route, delivering newspapers to the likes of Speaker Cornelio Villareal, Sen. Arturo Tolentino, and the like. Our newsboys that time were Tour of Luzon champs Rodrigo and Willie Abaquita, Jose and Manolito Moring, Edmundo de Guzman, and Romualdo Gabot. We used to have pan de sal and Star margarine
together whenever they delivered the papers to our store. But I digress. 

I distinctly recall Poch Martinez and the Ventozas being with a team known as Kairuz---a company which sold racing bicycles. they supplied the Tour of Luzon riders, and their owner was Tony Kairuz. But they weren't in the MICAA. They were in the PICAA, a smaller league, which was in the same breadth as the BAA (Bankers Athletic Association), where HSBC and Manilabank reigned supreme. PICAA was also the original league of Seven Up and Puyat Steel, I believe. 

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