The newest basketball league in the Philippines began last January 19, 2025, but what has the Women’s Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League have to offer to every hoop fan around the country?
MPBL’s Sister League
Senator and Filipino Boxing Legend Manny Pacquiao created the basketball league named Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League way back in 2017 in hopes of giving Filipino ballers to achieve their dream of playing in a basketball league in the Philippines apart from the Philippine Basketball Association.
And it did, the promise of Manny did become true. A lot of players turned their dreams into a reality and made the MPBL a golden destination for Filipino hoopers and not just a backup plan if they ever failed to make it to the PBA.
Manny appointed a UAAP UST Growling Tigress Champion, Haydee Ong to be the Commissioner of this league. Now this 2025, it’s time for the dreams of Filipina players to accomplish their dream to make it to the league of their own with the creation of WMPBL.
Their Time to Shine
With the newest stars across the Philippines, these Filipina ballers are now expected to make the most out of the opportunity given to them. It’s no debate that aside from the Women’s Basketball in the UAAP and the Women’s Gilas Pilipinas, these players have no other option to continue playing basketball since there’s literally no basketball league in the Philippines that caters to women players.
For a brief period of time, there was the Chooks-to-Go Women’s National Basketball League which debuted in 2021 but it didn’t really last long.
So now, it doesn’t just cater to those who served the country for the national team and played in the UAAP but also those female players that came from across the Philippines to make a name for themselves.
Journey to the Promised Land
The tournament format for WMPBL is also something new as this isn’t the one used in the PBA and in the NBA or even in the WNBA. There are a total of 14 teams which are divided into two groups. There are 4 collegiate participating squads battling against commercially owned teams.
Group A features Discovery Pilipinas, Pilipinas Aguilas, CEU Lady Scorpions, FEU Lady Tamaraws, Cavite ‘Tol Patriots, PSP Gymers and Solar Home Suns. Group B, is composed of EZ Jersey Relentless, Imus Lady Magdalo, San Juan Lady Knights, New Zealand Bluefire Valkyries, Philippine Navy Lady Sailors, UST Growling Tigresses, and Galeries Tower Skyrisers.
Teams will go into a single round-robin and the top 4 teams per group will advance to the next round. The next matchup would be #1 vs #4 and #2 vs #3 respectively for each Group with both the #1 and #2 seed having a twice to beat advantage.
The last two remaining squads for each group would then battle to determine who’ll be the champions for Bracket A and Bracket B. Finally, the Bracket A Champion would match up against Bracket B Champion in a Best of Three Finals to determine who’ll be the first-ever champion in the Inaugural season of the WMPBL.
Though reports have mentioned that there is no cash prize allotted yet to the eventual champions, they still are part of a once-in-a-lifetime history in Philippine Basketball.
Names yet to be Created
For all the casual fans out there, there’s no widely known Pinay baller that is set to play in this league. Literally speaking, these players are out here trying to carve their name in the history books to make a household name for themselves. So there’s expectation, but that’s the exciting part.
You see Pinoy’s are excited to finally have the comparisons and the Filipina version of WNBA superstars like Caitlyn Clark, Sue Bird, Angel Reese, Britney Griner, and Sabrina Ionescu. But the comparison is the thief of joy. As fans, the best thing that we can do is just enjoy the game and appreciate how talented these women are with the sports that majority of Filipinos are obsessed with.
