"We’ve been informed that Eric may suit up for us pero hinihintay pa namin na maging official ang lahat," said Ginebra coach Siot Tangquincen.

Menk and other suspended Fil-foreign players got a favorable decision from the Board of Governors as the league approved yesterday a new set of criteria in relation to the eligibility of Fil-foreign players who are currently under suspension.

The Board of Governors came up with the following requirements for a suspended Fil-foreign player to play again: (1) He must have played for at least three PBA seasons and must have suited up in at least one game during the 2004-2005 PBA season; (2) He must be a Philippine passport holder; (3) He must have played for the Philippine men’s basketball national team in at least one international competition; (4) He must have had a positive impact on the league prior to his suspension.

The criteria set by the league for admission of Fil-foreign players in the future will remain. These include residency and documentary requirements.

Before coming up with the new criteria, it was reported that an amnesty program for the grounded Fil-foreign players is in the works in the Board of Governors.

But negative feedbacks apparently killed the idea.

"The decision to adopt new criteria has been necessitated by recent legal developments which have made the PBA’s continued reliance on the DoJ (Department of Justice) as ineffective and misplaced," said PBA Commissioner Noli Eala.

Eala must be referring to Talk ‘N Text slotman Asi Taulava’s hard stance against the DoJ’s interference and the league’s dependence on the government institution’s findings.

The league used to suspend or ban Fil-foreign players based on the findings and decisions of the DoJ, like in October 2004, when such players as Talk ‘N Text’s Asi Taulava, Red Bull’s Mick Pennisi, Davonn Harp and Jon Ordonio, Coca-Cola’s Rudy Hatfield and Ginebra’s Alex Crisano were ordered deported following a lengthy Senate hearing.

Taulava and Pennisi have since been cleared to play for their mother teams. In fact, the two are already playing for their respective teams.

Last January, Menk, Coke’s Rafi Reavis and Shell’s Chris Jackson were suspended after failing to present authenticated papers attesting to their Filipino roots.

Aside from Menk, Reavis may also play for his team when it meets Purefoods Chunkee on Wednesday.

Hatfield, who has been cleared by the DoJ, is still in the US. Menk and Hatfield are members of the national team that competed in the Busan Asian Games while Reavis suited up for the victorious RP team in the recent Shell Rimula-X Cup in Brunei.

Harp, part of the national training pool that played in several matches with international squads in three years ago, is reportedly playing with a new team in the US and also has a lucrative business there, making dim the possibility of a PBA return.