Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association

Seventies and Thereafter

The declaration of martial law in the country in September 1972 – just seven months after Xavier School upset Grace Christian College to snare its first championship - forced the temporary suspension of any activity in the MMTLBA, the successor to the Greater Manila Filipino-Chinese Secondary School Basketball Association and Metro Manila Filipino-Chinese Tiong Lian School Basketball Association in February 1970.

Before that, the Boys Juniors (high school) basketball competitions had been staged annually.

Action resumed in 1974 with Chiang Kai Shek College defeating Uno High School in the Finals for another title.

The following year, St. Stephen’s High School wrested the crown with a victory over the Blue Dragons in the titular series.
In 1976, the tournament was temporarily suspended for a second time in league history to prepare for the formal integration of local Chinese schools into the Filipino community.

That year, Xavier School also took an extended leave.

When the games resumed once more in 1977, the league formally changed its name to Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association (MMTLBA).

St. Stephen’s High School walked away with the championship hardware that year with a Finals triumph over Chiang Kai Shek College.

From thereon, the Tiong Lian title changed hands through the decades.

Hope Christian High School, Philippine Cultural High School and Uno High School won for the first time during the 1980s.

Behind Stevenson Tiu, who once scored 48 points in a single game, Hope Christian High School was victorious in 1981 and, two years later (1983), the school again triumphed against Philippine Cultural High School, with Tiu serving as an assistant coach to the team.
In between (1982), St. Stephen’s High School bounced back from a third-place finish the previous year to dethrone Hope Christian.
Philippine Cultural broke through for the first time in 1984, trouncing SSHS in the finals. A year later, the school left the league following allegations of poor officiating.

Chiang Kai Shek dominated the competitions from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties. Soon, it had also become a full-pledged college.

A five-year Finals rivalry between Chiang Kai Shek College and Uno High School emerged from 1985-89.

Chiang Kai Shek College romped away with the crown against Uno High School in 1985, 1987 and 1988 and Uno reached the mountain top in 1986 (for its first-ever title) and 1989.
The Blue Dragons subsequently reigned for three consecutive seasons, downing Grace Christian in the Finals in 1990 and 1992 and Hope Christian in 1991.

In 1993, Xavier School, with an all-male student population, returned to the MMTLBA following a 17-year sabbatical.
Xavier settled for third place that year as Hope Christian stopped the CKSC steamroller with a Finals victory.

The reign was short-lived as the Blue Dragons came roaring back with titles in 1994 and 1995 – both against St. Stephen’s High School – as Xavier ranked third for a third consecutive season.

In 1996, Xavier advanced to the finals for the first time since 1972 but SSHS stunned the former in the finals. The following campaign, Uno High School won it all as Xavier remained a bridesmaid for the second year in a row.

Xavier, behind the prolific Eric Yao, finally broke through in 1998 with a two-game sweep of the best-of-three finals against Chiang Kai Shek College.

St. Stephen’s High School was back on the throne in 1999 and 2000, bringing down Chiang Kai Shek College and Uno High School, respectively, in the finals.
Xavier eventually transformed into a perennial title contender during the 2000s.

The Golden Stallions advanced to the Final for 11 straight seasons from 2001 to 2011, duplicating the all-timer league record held by Chiang Kai Shek College (1985-95). During the period, Xavier copped eight championships.

Behind Joseph Yeo (a senior), Tyrone Conrad Tang (a junior) and Chris Tiu (a sophomore), the Golden Stallions defeated Uno for the title in 2001, repeated over the Uneans the following campaign and registered a title “three-peat” in 2003. Yeo (La Salle), Tang (La Salle) and Tiu (Ateneo) eventually made it to UAAP ball and the PBA grade, with Tiu also representing the national colors in during heyday.

Meanwhile, St. Stephen’s HS (2004 and 2005) and Chiang Kai Shek College (2007) were able to overcome the Golden Stallions’ championship stranglehold.

The 2004-05 Stephenians, mentored by Goldwin Monteverde, was built around future De La Salle player Kish Co.

Xavier prevented the Stephenians from duplicating its three-peat in 2006. Woody Co, another future UP and PBA player, and Charles Tiu, who’s currently the head coach of De La Salle Saint Benilde Blazers (succeeding Tang in the post), led the Stallions to a title victory over Chiang Kai Shek College to jumpstart a three-year rivalry.

Chiang Kai Shek College romped away with the 2007 diadem. It was piloted by Sunny Co, and bannered by burly frontliner Justin Chua, who is still active in the professional league PBA.

Powered by Gabriel Banal and Jeric Teng, Xavier exacted revenge in 2008 with a 2-1 titular decision over the Blue Dragons.

Moreover, it was the beginning of an unprecedented four-year championship reign by the Golden Stallions, having blasted the Kim Lo and Jason Ligad-led Saint Jude Catholic School in 2009 and 2010 and Hope Christian High School in 2011.

Xavier put together a league record-setting 32-game winning streak during the four-year period (2008-2011).

In 2012, Chiang Kai Shek College upset then-graduating Jeron Teng with twin victories in the semifinals and went on to trounce Hope Christian High School in the Finals.

In the league’s farewell campaign (2013), Hope Christian High School, starring Jollo Go (La Salle) and burly John Apacible (UE), halted a 20-year title drought with a 2-1 victory over Xavier School, which featured four future UAAP and PBAers on its roster in Kyles Lao (UP), George Isaac Go (Ateneo), Jarrell Lim (UP) and Christian Tyler Tio (Ateneo).

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From simply being a high school (Juniors Division) tournament, the MMTLBA expanded in 1990 to include an Elementary Division.
After 11 seasons (1990-2000), it metamorphosed into the Aspirants Division (with an age limit of 14 and under) in 2001.

St. Stephen’s High School captured the maiden event and Uno High School rose to the throne the following year.

Xavier’s dynastic rule then arrived. The kiddie Golden Stallions were champions for nine straight seasons from 2003 to 2011. Chiang Kai Shek College halted Xavier’s reign in 2012 via a 2-1 score and, just two weeks before the league curtains came down in late February 2013, trounced the Stallions anew with a 2-0 sweep in the most lopsided best-of-three Aspirants Finals in Tiong Lian history.
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In 2003, the MMTLBA accepted Saint Jude Catholic School as a member. The Judenites, however, took a leave two years later.
Founding member Grace Christian High School and Saint Jude Catholic School returned to the MMTLBA in 2006 to bring the league’s overall membership back to seven schools.

Uno High School, however, withdrew from the league after the 2012 season.
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By 2008, the MMTLBA had also established a Girls High School division. The Chiang Kai Shek College belles emerged triumphant in the first two years. Uno High School annexed the crown in 2010.
Saint Jude Catholic School succeeded the Uneans in 2011. Chiang Kai Shek College was back on the throne in 2012 but it was unable to defend its title the following campaign as the Girls HS competitions were scrapped from the calendar.

SUNNY’S SIDE UP

Sunny Co is one of the venerable figures in Chiang Kai Shek College and Chinese-Filipino basketball history.

The 5-11 forward with a mean jumper, suited up for the Blue Dragons during the Tiong Lian’s initial season in 1969-70 alongside the late Lim Eng Beng and Peter Ley.

While Lim and Ley went on to become major pieces in De La Salle’s NCAA title finish in 1974, The Binondo-born Co, on the other hand, played with the Unibersidad ng Pilipinas and then earned his spurs with Presto in the old Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA).

Co was one of the pioneer players in the professional Philippine Basketball Association when it opened shop in April 1975. He spent three seasons (1975-76, 1979) in the PBA and averaged 7.4 points in 52 games with CFC Presto/Great Taste and Mariwasa.
After hanging up his jersey, Co turned to coaching with his high school alma mater. During his 12-year mentoring career with Chiang Kai Shek College, he won a record seven titles in 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992 and 2007. Runner-up finishes came in 1986, 1989, 2006 and 2008. All told, there were eight straight trips to the Tiong Lian finals from 1985-1992 and three more consecutively from 2006-08.

Co’s 2007 championship team was built around Justin Chua, who helped lead Ateneo de Manila University to five straight championships in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and now has lasted more than a decade in the PBA.

GRACE CHRISTIAN AND XAVIER DOMINATE EARLY YEARS

Chiang Kai Shek College and Philippine Chinese High School engaged in an epic Finals matchup in 1969-70 with the Blue Dragons romping away with the championship.

The year after in 1970-71, Grace Christian High School, behind ace shooter Alex Tan who later won a title in 1974 with the University of the East in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and in the professional Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), defeated Hope Christian High School in the finals.

Grace Christian looked to repeat the following season and appeared headed into that direction after sweeping the elimination round with a perfect 6-0 record, including a 79-70 victory over eventual champion Xavier School in the season opener.

By virtue of its front-running mark, powerhouse Grace Christian needed only to beat second-seeded Xavier School (4-2) only once to retain the championship. The Golden Stallions, on the other hand, needed to win twice to wrest the crown.

Xavier School lifted its record to 2-1 with wins over Chiang Kai Shek College (62-59 after scoring the game’s final eight points in the last two minutes) and Hope Christian High School (83-46).

Just when most league observers thought that the Xaverians now had what it took to challenger the powerhouse teams, they were beaten by lowly Philippine Chinese High School (Cultural), 74-65, to drop their record to 2-2.

At the break, Xavier was up, 31-29. However, the team was lethargic and totally out of zinc throughout the second half. At halftime, the all-boy cheerleaders gave roses to their female counterparts from Philippine Chinese HS in a pre-Valentine’s Day bravado. The players from the other side, though, did not reciprocate this gallant gesture and instead gave the Golden Stallions a lot of fits in the final 20 minutes, which certainly was no bed of roses.

Xavier next took on Uno High School in a must-win game for the Gold and Blue if it were to keep their hopes for a Finals berth alive. The team rose to the challenge and defeated Uno, 68-62, while leading by as much as 21 points. It was this crucial victory that paved the way for Xavier to clinch the No. 2 ranking under the winner-over-the-other rule (Uno also wound up with a 4-2 record).

Xavier completed the elims phase with an easy 82-63 decision over St. Stephen’s High School to subsequently march into the Finals.

Prior to the Finals, the head coaches from Chiang Kai Shek College, St. Stephen’s High School, Hope Christian High School and Philippine Chinese High School picked the more seasoned and experienced Grace Christian quintet to retain the championship.
Only the bench strategist for third-place Uno High School predicted that Xavier, a heavy underdog, would score an upset.

At stake in the bet was dinner in a high-end Chinese restaurant with a full-course meal.

The Uno coach was damn right in his prognostication as bad luck struck heavily-favored Grace Christian.

Xavier’s “Spirit of ‘72” was too much to overcome as the Golden Stallions won twice, 74-67 (a wire-to-wire win), and 57-50, to gain the title for the first time in their program history.

Superstitious or not, the meals served in the team quarters before both games cost P7. And Xavier ironically beat Grace Christian by seven points twice in a row.

In the decisive winner-take-all match, Xavier got off to a sluggish start and trailed by nine, 36-27, at intermission. The boys overcame the deficit in the second half when, egged on by the cheering squad and school supporters in the jampacked gallery at the Chiang Kai Shek gym on February 24, 1972, kept chanting JA-WOR-SKI, JA-WOR-SKI in a subtle attempt to unnerve one of the referees, Jose Obias who, together with his co-ref Dr. Ediberto Cruz, was physically mauled by Robert (Sonny) Jaworski and Alberto (Big Boy) Reynoso in a MICAA All-Filipino game between Meralco and Crispa on December 19, 1971.

For whatever reason, an intimidated Obias kept on calling charging fouls against Grace Christian’s top players, led by future UAAP, MICAA (with Yco) and PBA star Alex Tan that forced them into exile on five fouls.

Xavier also tightened its defense, forcing the opposition into a maze of errors and several charging fouls midway through the second half.

With the stars of Grace Christian in deep foul trouble, the Golden Stallions overcame a 40-33 deficit to detonate a 14-0 bomb to erect a 47-40 advantage with 7:59 left in the game.

Grace Christian, which also committed 15 turnovers during the six-minute “blackout” stretch, never got back into the game thereafter as Xavier enjoyed a pair of 10-point leads, 53-43 and 55-45, before registering the most stunning Finals upset in Chines League (Tiong Lian) history.

High school junior Elmer Lim, who later suited up for UP in the UAAP in the 1973 UAAP campaign, topscored for Xavier with 16 points on 7-for-12 field shooting) and team captain and playmaker Victor Chew nearly put together a triple-double with 12 assists, 10 rebounds and eight markers.

BLUE DRAGONS LEAD THE WAY

Powerhouse Chiang Kai Shek College owns the most number of MMTLBA titles in the Boys Juniors Division. The Blue Dragons emerged triumphant on 15 occasions in the league’s first 43 seasons.

Seven of them came under the tutelage of head coach Sunny Co, the winningest bench strategist in MMTLBA history.

Xavier School, an all-boys school based in the City of San Juan, is next with 10 championships. The Golden Stallions put together four straight titles from 2008 to 2011 – a league first – and registered a 31-game winning streak along the way for another MMTLBA mark.

St. Stephen’s High School ranks third with eight titles. The last two came consecutively in 2004 and 2005 behind legendary coach Goldwin Monteverde, who also steered CKSC to the 2012 MMTLBA crown.

Succeedingly, the son of Regal Films’ Mother Lily piloted the National University Bullpups to a pair of UAAP Juniors titles and then the Unibersidad ng Pilipinas Fighting Maroons to the UAAP collegiate diadem in 2022.

There are 23 Tiong Lian products that have made it to the professional Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) ranks.

The list includes Chiang Kai Shek College's Justin Chua (in photo).

Xavier School has a dozen of alumni to suit up in the PBA. .

A HUMBLING BEGINNING

When one talks about Chinese-Filipino high school basketball league in the Metro Manila area, there was not one that compared to the Metro Manila Tiong Basketball Association (MMTLBA) from the late sixties to the early 2010s.

The Tiong Lian (literal English translation is “an association of high schools”) unquestionably was the premier Chinese-Filipino high school league at the time.

It took some time for the MMTLBA to create a following.

The league, in fact, had a humbling beginning.

It was first known as Greater Manila Filipino-Chinese Secondary School Basketball Association, the forerunner of the MMTLBA, in 1967.

Meant to integrate the Tsinoy youth in the local sports landscape, seven trailblazing Metro Manila Chinese schools joined hands to form the league. These were Chiang Kai Shek High School, Grace Christian High School, Hope Christian High School, Philippine Chinese High School, St. Stephen’s High School, Uno High School and Xavier School. Eventually, three schools evolved into a college – Chiang Kai Shek College, Grace Christian College and Philippine Cultural College (from Philippine Chinese High School).

History books of the then-Chinese League, however, listed 1969-70 as inaugural competitions. That season, Chiang Kai Shek HS defeated Philippine Chinese High School (which later became Philippine Cultural High School then College) to snare the title.

The finals turned out to be a shootout between Lim Eng Beng and Fortunato (Atoy) Co Jr., both of whom would also later make a name in the NCAA collegiate ranks – Co for Mapua Institute of Technology and Lim for De La Salle College – and at the professional level (Philippine Basketball Association).

Co romped away with the league’s scoring crown but Lim brought home the championship hardware.

Even before their high school rivalry, both were already well-known in the Chinese community at the commercial level. Lim was the top gun for the China Bank basketball team while Co was the unstoppable center for Avesco (Atoy would later transform to a shooting guard in the pro ranks).

In one game against Xavier School, the third-placer in the tournament, Co, with his long turnaround, fadeaway jumpers (the three-point shot was still an afterthought at the time), he poured in a mind-boggling 44 points to beat the Golden Stallions by a margin of 10.

In the official scorebook, in the row beside Co’s name, there were a lot of twos (field goals scored) and also several Xs to represent the free throws made.

Still, Co’s amazing scoring was overshadowed by one long, long shot from Xavier guard Ronnie Tan in the dying seconds of the game. It was Xavier’s ball possession, and as the inbound pass under Cultural’s basket was made to Ronnie, he received it in the shaded area, wheeled around – and out of frustration – hoisted the ball with his right hand in the direction of Xavier’s goal. The ball sailed the distance of the court and went in, thus trimming the final deficit to 10 points instead of 12.

The crowd went wild and, for his feat, Ronnie was given a Special Award during the tournament’s awarding ceremonies for the “longest basket made.”

For the record, Ronnie’s shot outdistanced even Los Angeles Lakers guard Jerry West’s game-tying, 60-foot miracle heave against the New York Knicks in Game 3 of the best-of-seven 1970 NBA Finals, a game that the Lakers eventually lost in overtime and the series in a maximum seven games.

Chiang Kai Shek College, bannered by Lim Eng Beng and co-future professional player Sunny Co, owned the last hurrah, though, as the Blue Dragons captured the first of their 15 Boys Juniors championships.

GENESIS

In 1967, the Greater Manila Filipino-Chinese Secondary School Basketball Association was established.

Three years later in February 1970, it metamorphosed into what was known as the Metro Manila Filipino-Chinese Tiong Lian School Basketball Association.

The founding member schools consisted of Chiang Kai Shek College, Uno High School, Grace Christian High School (now College), Philippine Chinese High School (now Philippine Cultural College), St. Stephen’s High School, Hope Christian High School and Xavier School.

The Boys Juniors (high school) basketball competitions were staged annually, with the exceptions in 1973 or several months after the declaration of martial law in the country and in 1976 when the league temporarily suspended play to give way to the formal integration of local Chinese schools into the Filipino community.

The following year (1977), when the games resumed, it rebranded into what was called the Metro Manila Tiong Lian Basketball Association (MMTLBA) or popularly known as the Tiong Lian League.

The games were held at the CKSC gym or Uno gym on alternate years.

In 1989-90, the league was expanded to include the Boys’ Elementary Division, which eventually evolved into the Aspirants Division (for players aged 14 and under) in 2000-01.

Girls Juniors competitions were also held starting the 2007-08 season.

The tradition-steeped Tiong Lian league had had a rich and colorful history in Philippine basketball, last for 43 years.

But on the night of February 28, 2013, following Hope Christian High School’s defeat of Xavier School, 62-55, in the deciding third game of the 2013 Boys’ Juniors finals behind Arjan Dela Cruz’s 29 points and 11 rebounds to end a 20-year drought, the MMTLBA curtains closed down due to the deep-seated contrasting views among the member schools on player recruitment.

The year before, hostile exchanges of views regarding the thorny issue had already developed even as founding member Uno High School withdrew from the league.

The simmering feud put the existence of the MMTLBA in limbo.

There were attempts to revive the league in the past decade, but it was all to no avail.

But Year 2024 has brought new hopes for the resurrection of the MMTLBA. As they say, in every cloud, there is a silver lining.
If so, it won’t take any longer for the MMTLBA: The Sequel to come into fruition.