Hidilyn Diaz and The Story of the Filipina

This is a story of perseverance.

Hidilyn Diaz, was a wild card entry into the 2008 Olympics, chosen by the Philippine Weightlifting Association. It was, for all intents

and purposes, an exposure trip.  She performed creditably.  In 2012, she qualified for the Olympic games by placing 9th in the Continental tournaments.  Despite the obvious improvements, she fails to clear a brave attempt at 118 kgs in the clean and jerk, leaving her out of medal contention.  In 2016, she wins 3 bronze medals in IWF World Weightlifting Championships and qualifies for the Olympics.  A full 12 years of constant competition and she readied herself once more as she strapped on the three stars and a sun. 

Read more

The Head and the Heart

     A prominent "0" stands under the Win column of the Philippines' standings in the 2014 FIBA World Cup of Basketball.  As the group stages come to a close, however, it's prominence is overshadowed by something else.  The Philippine Men's Basketball Team, Gilas Pilipinas, has captured the world's attention.

     Oftentimes, we are warned that letting our hearts decide over our heads is a prescription for disaster.  Being too emotional leads to poor decision-making; it clouds judgement.  The head is stable; it protects you from being hurt by telling you to avoid any possible pain.  To live with your heart on your sleeve is to open yourself to tremendous hurt.  Yes, following your heart to pursue your passions, your childhood dream, your one great love, is a recipe for incomparable heartache.  

Read more

Fighting the Good Fight

     The only goal a good documentary should have is to shine the light of truth on an otherwise hidden or unknown subject.  Whether it's to expose a government's ineptness to handle a terrorist attack or the terrifying effects of eating fast food everyday, documentaries need to surprise and move people and their emotions with an unadulterated dose of the truth.  The problem that faced the directors, Oscar winner Leon Gast (When We Were Kings) and Filipino american Ryan Moore, was that their only subject, Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao, is one of the world's most recognized faces.  Pacquiao's day to day routine and life story have been well documented, too well documented , in fact, that showing a new side, a new truth is a herculean task.

     Predictably, the documentary tracks Pacquiao's rags to riches story, from a small fishing village in General Santos to the small city in Saranggani and then later the streets of Malabon.  It also predictably tracks Pacquiao's amazing (and still ongoing) boxing career, from his early Philippine and Asian wins to his startling rise to greatness on the world stage.  But to say that the documentary is a predictable reel with the hopes of bolstering Pacquiao's future political career would be just too lazy.  The documentary provides a hidden, unexpected gem that only real silence will allow.

Read more

Perils of Being a Visionary

     Being a visionary is tough. By definition you alone (or at most, a couple of people) see the vision of greatness you have in mind and most of the time, you're labelled as insane, arrogant or foolish. (Props to you if you get all 3.)

     When Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) took over the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP), he saw a grand vision. He then put us on the road to that vision by setting up the Gilas program. Gilas 1 was the 1st crack. Rajko Toroman, himself a trail blazer who led Iran to the Olympics, gathered a group of amateur stars to form a national team who would play only for the national team. It was ambitious. Gilas 1? A fourth place finish, courtesy of yet again a heartbreaking loss to Korea, was the Philippines' best FIBA Asia finish since 1985. No Olympic berth? No PBA stars? Internet 'experts' and 'pundits' had a field day.

     "Insane, arrogant and foolish," they said. They didn't get it.

Read more

Oh Please

     Every sports fan has probably heard about it by now.  Two members of the Azkals, the Philippine Men's National Football Team, were accused of sexual harassment by AFC Commisioner and former presidential daughter Cristy Ramos Jalasco.  Now, people have apparently decided to take sides on this issue in a classic he said/she said situation, but there really is no side to take.  There is only the truth.  If Angel Guirado and Lex Moy did what Ramos Jalasco alleged, then they must pay.  If they didn't sexually harass her, then she must explain her actions and resign from her position.  

     The real dangerous issue here though is not the incident itself.  Yes, it's a serious matter, but both parties are adults here, with enough influence to ensure justice is done.  The real danger is in the resulting prose coming out of supposed respected members of the media.  It started with the papers, reviving the same prose the PBA and its players had to endure; about how Fil-Ams and other FIlipinos of mixed heritage are not "real" Filipinos and how they bring nothing but trouble.  Last time, during the wave of FIl-ams invaded the PBA, supposed experts accused them of "stealing" jobs from "true-blooded" Pinoys and condemned them as if it were the Spanish Inquisition.  Now, it's beginning again. From Al Mendoza to Recah Trinidad to Manolo Inigo, the hate just spilled out, blaming their mixed origins, accusing them of lacking manners and breeding.  Then there was this, by GMA7 reporter Arnold Clavio.  Never mind that he is from GMA7, the rival network of ABS CBN, which supoprts the Azkals.  At the 50 second mark, Clavio turns from a blowhole into a full-pledged ass.  





     His masterpiece of a speech included, "Hindi naman kayo Pilipino.  Nagpapanggap lang kayong kayumanggi." ("You are not Filipino. You are pretending to have caramel complexion.")  Not to be a smart aleck, but Moy looks pretty kayumanggi to me.  Seriously, though, this is where everything becomes a farce.   This is such an old issue and the fact that it's resurfacing just shows how much racism is prevalent in our nation, most likely brought about by the numerous foreign countries which occupied us. 

     Oh please.  Since when did being Filipino become a matter of blood or color? If Clavio and all these writers are so adamant about being true Filipinos then they need to excuse themselves as well, unless they are of pure blood from the Filipino indigenous tribes.  After all, they're looking for "real" FIlipinos here.  How can Jose Rizal be a true national hero then, when he is of mixed origin? 


      Being Filipino has never been about skin color, race or place of birth.  That is why you can be born anywhere and still be Pinoy.  Being Filipino has always been about heart.  It is about love of country and family, respect for elders, ingenious adaptability and warm hospitality.  It is about deciding to sacrifice your body, blood, sweat, tears to play for the country.  It is about declaring to the world that you are proud of your roots.


     If there really are Filipinos of mixed heritage that err, then I'd be the first to stand in line in condemning them.  If all we have are allegations,  then it is intensely stupid to condemn all of our national athletes of mixed heritage. Heck, even if Guirado and Moy are found guilty, it is still stupid to condemn all the other athletes.  These are men and women who chose to play here and represent us.  They have the ability to compete and they chose to declare their FIlipino citizenship and help make us proud and lift our country's morale.  To call them anything less than true Filipinos is a hate crime. Plain and simple. 


photos courtesy of ellentordesillas.com, azkalsfootballteam.com 

My Final Plea

     There is no hiding the fact that I have absolutely no faith in Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr. and utter disdain for his antics.  I'm getting that out of the way so that everyone can read this with a grain of salt.  In light of recent developments including his outright declaration of disinterest in fostering peace through Philippine Sports, I just feel this has to be said.


     Peping's presence and leadership in the POC is detrimental to the health of our sports programs and he should do the country a great service by resigning.


     I could go on and on about my personal feelings about how he effectively threw away the youth development program I had laid out when I was National Youth Bowling Coach, but I figured to make my case more "admissible," I will try to keep this 80% facts and 20% feelings.  


Report Card

     Since Cojuangco took over as president in 2005, the Philippines participated in 3 South East Asian (SEA) Games, 1 Asian Games and 1 Olympics.  Three of those 5 events were unmitigated disasters. The '07 Thailand SEA Games performance was the worst in history (a 6th place finish overall).  Meanwhile, the 2006 Qatar Asian Games were no better, with the Philippines placing 19th (well below SEA Games neighbors Malaysia and Thailand) winning only 4 golds.  The Olympics?  Well, how about one? As in one big fat egg, with the country winning no medals in the regular sports with just a couple in wushu, a demonstration sport.


     The recently concluded 2009 Laos SEA Games offers no solace as well, with the Philippines ending at an "improved" 5th place, a place we never even heard of just three years and 1 Peping ago.  The only feather in the cap was our 2005 Philippines SEA Games performance, where we finished first overall.  That feather, however, still comes with a black eye, as allegations of misplaced/misused funds continue to hound the POC almost 5 years later.


Smoke Detected

     In his tenure as POC president, Cojuangco, ever a "sportsman" as he claims, became an active president and got involved with several National Sports Associations (NSAs) in an effort to help.  These lucky NSAs were archery, basketball, billiards, bowling, cycling, equestrian, swimming and wrestling.  Four years into Cojuangco's presidency, each of these associations have already experienced major leadership trouble and controversies, and each of these sports have underperformed in the tournaments mentioned above.  Furthermore, only 1 (basketball) has shown any semblance of a viable and significant youth development program since 2005 and that one is being bankrolled by Manny Pangilinan.  Now, it would be quite a debate to prove Cojuangco caused all these messes, it's just a little too convenient that these were the only sports that encountered these problems.


     In times like this, where life is hard enough as it is, few people in power remember the importance of sports; that many count on it as a source of national pride and problem distraction.  That is why this Peping problem is a problem that must be solved with some urgency.  


     I've written about this many times, but before I alienate people with my dogged insistence, this will be my final plea.  I have not decided on who to vote for president, but I am leaning towards fellow Atenean Noynoy Aquino, so this is my plea to you, sir and to your other rivals.  While I don't mind presidentsiables taking their time on touchy issues like the reproductive health bill or President GMA's prosecution, I want a president who will decidedly act to save Philippine Sports, our foremost source of pride.


     My vote is for sale.  Assure me that you will remove Peping Cojuangco from Philipiine Sports and you have my vote.  


photos courtesy of abs-cbnnews.com and philippinesfunwall.wordpress.com

Experience: The Overhyped Commodity

     With the influx of relatively young candidates into the Philippines' presidential elections next year, the expected barrage of mud slinging has now begun, and while I seldom write about politics, this attack on candidates' "experience" and "achievements" has really rubbed me the wrong way.  As with Philippine politics, the question of which athletes to send to tournaments (or which presidentiable to elect) has been a contentious one to say the least because of the "age and experience" debate. 

     In sports (and apparently now in politics), our officials have always put a premium on "experience" and "past achievements" so much that we end up sending virtual grandfathers and grandmothers to tournaments.  Furthermore, favoring experience has slowly led to the degradation of our national development of athletes so we have now experienced a problem with continuity.  I still remember our track team sending a aged Elma Muros-Posadas and Ed Buenavista to the South East Asian Games and the Olympics because they were "experienced" and what was our medal haul? O medals, and in Buenavista's case, a disqualification for crossing running lanes.  Meanwhile, boxer Harry Tanamor will still be given a chance to fight for a 2012 Olympic slot despite the fact that he would have reached the maximum age limit for boxers competing in the Olympics because, wait for it, his "experience" and past "achievements."

     What is it with experience?  While I agree that premium should be put on experience, it shouldn't be the end all and be all of choosing an athlete or a president.  Experience is nothing more than being there.  It's what is learned form experience that is helpful and that is quite unquantifiable.  What's with the hullabaloo over past achievements?  A gold medallist now is nothing but an older, former medallist two to four years later.  Doing good things in the past doesn't always mean one is capable (or willing) to do more good things in the future.  Remember Taekwondo jin Toni Rivero and how she created a stir at the Olympics?  Well, we kept sending her and she kept losing.  Remember how we were convinced basketball pros would play better than college standouts in international play? Yup, we really did great with an 8th place finish.  Sports as with politics (and cooking, I might add), is an unforgiving field where you must outperform yourself daily, lest people criticize and attack you.   In such fields, hanging your hat on something in the past or on experience will have you eating someone else's dust.  Such fields are not to be dominated by age and experience, but they are actually settings for great performances by people, regardless of age, experience or past achievements,  who have the heart, the innovation and the intention to actually make them.  Take these athletes for example:

Sam Cassell - This loud-mouthed, trash talking NBA great (and now assistant coach) wasn't always a great.  As a fresh-faced rookie with virtually no great achievements to speak of, he was picked late (24th pick) in the first round.  Despite that, he not only earned playing time for the eventual NBA Champions Houston Rockets, but also became the team's most valuable sub for their back to back championship run, averaging 6.7 points and 2.9 assists (1st year) and 9.5 points and 4.9 assist (2nd year). Not bad for someone 23 other teams passed on.

Jim Morris - A science teacher and high school baseball coach, Morris had a bet with his students that he would try out for a Major League Baseball team if his team would win the district title.  One title later, coach and teacher Jim, whose earlier attempt at playing pro baseball was devoid of achievements and filled with injuries, did try out.  Throwing 98 mph fast balls continuously at the tryouts later netted him his dream of playing professional baseball at age 35.  His life story has been made into a Disney movie, and indeed his journey from an injured old coach and former player into the MLB's old oldest rookie and world wide inspiration does merit a movie.

Sharon Limansantoso - This Filipino-Indonesian bowler, playing for Indonesia as unassuming rookie, stunned the crowds as the 24th South East Asian Games in Thailand.  Despite being a relative unknown because of her lack of experience, Limansantoso came from behind to defeat the more experinced and highly-favored Esther Cheah of Malaysia 187-167 and 241-198 in the Masters Event, earning herself and Indonesia a gold medal in the bowling event. 

     In sports and in politics, what one has done and what one has experienced undoubtedly plays a role in one's ability to perform, but in examining every great political leader and athlete in our history, neither one is the most important element to their success.  What good did tons of experience do for Elma Muros and Ed Buenavista? Picking a president who was supposedly more learned and experienced has our country experiencing corruption at an all time high.  Superb politicians and athletes do have their common denominators, but they are neither experience nor past achievements.  Great heart to perform what they feel is right despite insurmountable odds and degrading criticism, unparalleled innovation to battle the constant yet ever-changing challenges that come their way and the purest of intentions to properly, respectfully and honorably represent their team or country are their common denominators. 

     Next year, decisions will be abound for our countrymen.  In forming our national sports teams and in picking our political leaders, we must all choose.  Let's do ourselves a favor and throw age, experience and past achievements out the proverbial window.  Let's choose the ones with great hearts, unparalleled innovation and pure intentions.  We cannot afford to keep sending athletes to competitions only to see them lose miserably, and Lord knows we can't afford another governement more concerned with crowing about supposed achievements instead of actually trying to achieve them.

photos courtesy of sports.espn.go.com and answers.com

Dissecting the Olympic Debacle (part 2)

Foreign Investment

While many grumble about recruiting Fil-Foreigners to the national team, I most welcome this move. After all, they are Fiilipinos too and they have every right to compete for national team slots. Hopefully though, these FIl-Foreigners are not given free passes to join the team. Let them try out and just give them slots because they were trained somewhere else. Furthermore, if we are going to recruit Fil-Foreigners, let's make sure we recruit the best ones, ones who can win, or young enough to improve and win. Please, no more supposed saviors like Athletics' David Bunevacz or Tennis' Eric Taino. Why didn't we get Swimming's Coughlin, who is now a two-time Olympic gold medallist or BMX Cycling's U.S. National Champion Caluag, who desperately wanted to represent us but was ignored by the cycling NSA? Recruiting Fil-Foreign players will help us, as long as we get the right ones. If we can't train the right ones, then let's go homegrown for that particular sport.

Learning from Jedi Masters

Almost all sports officials try to look learned by exclaiming we always need "grassroots development program" to boost sports development in our country. The problem is, nobody is really creating a proper grassroots program for any sport. Most "grassroots programs" here are nothing more than kids playing and enjoying the sport. Nothing wrong with that, but the program should be designed with a particular goal and time frame, if we want to develop future world champions. The problem is, most of our coaches, especially in these youth programs are former players or relatives with no coaching experience or training. No offense to these people as they are mostly volunteers, but how are they expected to imbibe the proper fundamentals if they don't know them themselves? What we need are elite coaches for oth the national AND grassroots programs, or better yet, we should pay the elite national coaches enough to handle both programs. This will ensure continuity between the two programs. At this time, though, most of our sports are in need of elite coaches, and admittedly most sports would need foreign coaches. Our national coaches are mostly great people (and I have met a lot of them), but we all need additional knowledge from them. Hiring all these coaches would require tons of money, but it is the proper step to the right direction. Also, that's why it's key to pick very few priority sports.

Pruning the Weeds

It's a common refrain to ask officials to step down whenever we lose, and I have to say, there is some prudence in that call. Unfortunately, many of these sports officials don't actually leave or find a roundabout way to come back. Sports officials are not politicians. Their roles include promoting the popularity and development of the sport. They are given funds and they have to manage these between international tournaments for the national team and different tournaments for the promotion of the sport in the country. This is not a job for people who don't play the sport. This is not a job for people who can barely play. This is not a job for politicians. We should have officials who have been working for the NSA for several years, beginning with the dirty work like arranging events, looking for private sponsors and the like. This way, they can learn the job first ad become the NSA Head when they are good ready. We should have officials who play and enjoy the sport, so they have a better idea on how to promote it. Lastly, we should have officials who go around the the happenings of the sport so they can truly understand the athletes and the sentiments of all participants. Sports officials should be people completely immersed in the sport, like the eer humble and passionate William Ramirez, not politicians who lose their congressional bids or brown nosers who cling to positions like barnacles.

There you have it. They are simple solutions but seemingly out of our sports officials' collective brains. Hopefully, sports politicians, especially those currently on the upper echlons of our sporting world, will soon find themselves jobless, and that will get the ball rolling. In this way, it won't hurt so bad to root for our national team.