[2] One early notable case was that of Sonny Alvarado, the top-overall pick in the 1999 PBA draft who claimed to be Filipino and Puerto Rican descent, who went on to becoming a key player for the Tanduay Rhum Masters.
[3] The issue persisted in the early 2000s, with the eligibility of certain Filipino-foreigners to play in the PBA was put into question particularly their heritage by locally based Filipino players.
[4] PBA commissioner Noli Eala formed a five-member committee to tackle the issue which has been attributed to the declining popularity of the league.
The Tanduay Rhum Masters, who signed in Sonny Alvarado in 1999, sold its franchise to FedEx Express (now Barako Bull Energy) in 2001.
[11] This led to peculiar cases such as CJ Perez who played high school and college basketball in the Philippines but was considered as a Filipino-foreigner since he was born in Hong Kong, and the Ganuelas-Rosser brothers Matt and Brandon.