THE 18 young players to be chosen as members of the national pool under the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas with Serbian coach Rajko Toroman handling the team have been asked to sign contracts that are patently onerous and, according to one distinguished lawyer, a violation of the Philippine Constitution.

A copy of the contract obtained by www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports revealed that the pact will run for one year and 11 months effective Feb. 1, 2009 for some players, with an opportunity for extension and three years for others.

SBP executive director Noli Eala announced that SBP president Manuel V. Pangilinan would spend a total of P72 million over the next three years with one unidentified player, believed to be popular Chris Tiu, offered a P6.4-million contract.

?The players were awed by the fact that we?re offering them unbelievable contracts at this point of their career, ?Eala was quoted as saying, adding that the minimum would be over a million pesos.

?These players are very lucky.?

But what a couple of lawyers noted was that the contracts had a penalty clause, which was legally untenable under the Bill of Rights of the Philippine Constitution effectively stating that ?no involuntary servitude in any form shall exist, except as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been fully convicted.?

Item 6 of the SBP contracts given the players by Eala includes ?penalties imposed for pre-terminated contracts initiated by the player. Pre-termination will subject the player to compensate the SBP with, at the very least, the amount corresponding to triple of the annual compensation.?

In effect, if a player who gets P1 million a year decides to terminate his contract after one month, he would have to pay the SBP P3 million.

Correspondingly, there is no clause which protects a player if he is dropped from the national pool for whatever reason.

There is also a clause which demands that the contracted players play only for the Smart national team, which denies them the right to enter the Philippine Basketball Association Annual Draft or even play in the Philippine Basketball League.

One board member insinuated that the plan to prevent the best amateurs from moving to the PBA was Eala?s attempt to get back at the pro league, where he was formerly the commissioner and was forced to resign ostensibly over a personal indiscretion.

PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios said the pro league was not informed about the SBP plans to compete in the PBA Philippine Cup, although it was mentioned in the players? contracts, while another board member said the SBP was assuming too much without the courtesy of consulting the pro league. Ronnie Nathanielsz