Kicksand

MASTER BLASTER May 10, 2011

After a rousing first stop in Subic last month, the season’s most exciting summer sport goes to the finest resorts in Boracay and Davao.

I am talking about the 2011 Kicksand Beach Football Series, a baby of the Beach Football Association of the Philippines (BFAP) whose President Mike Athab I consider a brother.

Mike rang up this week to say he’s personally going to Boracay to set up the venue and other logistical requirements of the event which comes as the final summer spectacle in the country’s summer beach capital. Kicksand will be staged after the Hala Bola PBA All-Star Week which also goes to the island this month.

The Boracay leg will be hosted by Bamboo Resort Hotel whose owner Jonar Villanueva, now the President of Kiwanis Club of Boracay, has personally attended to the preparations of the event through his manager Jimmy Escotin.

For the Boracay leg, Visayas squads will be crowding for the men’s and women’s titles but some teams who took part in Subic are among those knocking on the door to conquer Boracay. According to Mike, some of the squads in Subic are asking for the details of the Boracay and Davao events and will most likely join the next two legs of the tournament.

The teams in the Subic joust were interestingly composed of some of the finest football players of the land. I am pretty sure that Visayas, with its rich football tradition, will also come up with their best squads in the Boracay leg. And when the tournament swings to Davao, expect fireworks at the beach of Bluejaz as the local teams will surely defend their turf where pride is at stake.

For the Davao leg, James Infiesto is coordinating with BFAP and marketing group F1 Event Solutions in the preparations. Mike is also set to visit Davao and take an ocular of the venue.

The Kicksand event is sure to boost sports tourism in Davao in the manner that sports tourism has been the formula that makes Boracay the most interesting place in the country to hold events. The event has enormous media values in virtually all media platforms as has been proven in the Subic event.

F1 Event Solutions made sure the Kicksand event will be staged in Davao for the first time. Years back though, beach football was introduced here during the time of my late mentor and Godfather Vic Sai. Mike remembered the two stagings of the event in the black sands of Times Beach and Bonguyan.

F1 was also responsible for hooking up with the Bamboo Resort Hotel Boracay for the second leg. All these, however, were made possible with the masterstroke of PSC Commissioner Chito Loyzaga who has backed up BFAP in its programs this year. PSC chairman Richie Garcia gave his worthy support to the BFAP program also through his senior executive assistant, Dabawenyo lawyer Guillermo Iroy, Jr.

We can only get excited from here on and by the time the sands blast in Bora and Davao.

Notes: This is actually a watered down version of the piece I wrote earlier, but there are some things I’d like to say...Honey Wong of Anflocor sent us an email of the outstanding performers from their sports program in Panabo City. I say these kids are very promising and their on their way to the Palarong Pambansa to carve out a name for themselves after their very own kababayan and stablemate Rey and Vic Saludar of boxing...Thank you to Atty. Pinky Cabreros, Neb Bulaclac and my good friend Ben Sur of Phoenix for the opportunity to present some programs... Birthdays: Cheers to birthday girl, Sally May Tauro of F1 Event Solutions Inc...Also to Dr. Gizelle Geraldine Lim of Bulacan...And finally, my personal greetings to former Davao Oriental Governor Marlene Palma Gil who also celebrated her birthday last week and was thrown a surprise party by her children Bambi and Dennis, Jepot and Totot, Pia and RJ and Miguel and Aimee.

Will the real Leon Guerrero please show up?

He was on a dead end of the road, madly chased down by two bandits with their smoking pistols aimed at him. He checks his .38 caliber revolver and discovered he had just one more bullet left there. Two against one. Is this the end of the road for the quick-handed pistolero?

Just when you think this was the end of the line for the big screen hero, he pulls out a dagger, places the blade in between the bore of his pistol, then pulls the trigger. The blade slices the blazing metal and, like guided missiles, darted towards its target. The two villains fall down one after the other from the half-slug that hit them.

Not even Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino could have thought of that in their movies.

Yes, only a Lito Lapid can.

I must admit, when I was a kid I was a big fan of action movies starring the bemoustached stuntman from Pangasinan. He was the consummate hero and gentleman. He was always at the right place at the right time, whether rescuing a damsel from her would-be rapists or as a horse-riding Leon Guerrero saving a boy from a rushing train.

Those movie antics have made Lito Lapid a household hero among Filipino masses who thought that his acrobatic stunts leaping from one building to another or evading a barrage of bullets are enough reason to make this on-screen hero their hero in the halls of Senate.

Senator Lapid is now the chairman of the Senate Committee on Games, Amusement and Sports. I do not know the wisdom behind the order the three subjects were arranged in this committee, but Sports is last after Games and Amusement. This Committee is one of the 37 Committees in the Senate and by all sheer luck this was the chairmanship that fell on the table of Senator Lapid.

Alright, I would not doubt Senator Lapid’s capabilities as far as amusement is concerned. In this subject matter, he is the lead star of the Senate, whatever that means. Games and Sports are almost synonymous and this is the sad part.

Why of all committees it had to be sports, already a least prioritized item on the Philippines’ development agenda, which fell on the hands of Senator Lapid? Makes me wonder. Is sports that cursed?

For the record, Senator Lapid reportedly owns the dubious distinction of having the most absences in Senate. And if ever he attends a session, you will find yourself lucky if he ever talks at all.

Sports legislation is among the cures Philippine sports needed. Senator Pia Cayetano and Senator Angara passed separate Senate Bills calling for the creation of the Philippine Sports High School and the Philippine Sports University. Both bills can be consolidated once the Committee hears the proposed bill.

Problem is, there has been no call for a hearing by the Games, Amusement and Sports Committee. Worse, Senator Lapid is rarely found in his seat. How can we file these bills that needed to be passed in order to give sports a necessary shot in the arm if the Committee cannot call a hearing?

In his movies, Senator Lapid would always be ahead of the law enforcers. He would take the bandits with him and bring them to the arms of the law. But that was the movies. In the Senate, he is reportedly missed by his peers. His table at the session hall is like a deserted village left ransacked by bandits out of his cowboy movies.

Will the real Leon Guerrero please show up?

There he was on the dead end of the road chased by bills that needed to be heard. If Senator Lapid is not happy with his Committee, or at least one-third of it, he better give it to those who can steer it better and get the legislative machine moving.

This is no longer the silver screen. He cannot fire back with an empty pistol. Not even with a dull dagger.

A school for athletes

MASTER BLASTER

Neil Bravo

Senator Pia Cayetano’s heart for athletes is throbbing again. Last Monday, she was at her element during interpellation before the Senate floor after Senator Migs Zubiri delivered a privilege speech entitled “The Azkals and the state of Philippine Sports: Has it gone to the dogs?”

For Pia, that was just another day in the office. I don’t know about the rest of the country’s upper chamber but everytime there is trouble brewing in sports, they come talking. After a while, it dies down with the whispers.

Senator Pia is not just talking trash and calling Senate probes. She does her talking with legislations. So before a Senate probe can be called on the Azkals and Philippine sports, she already has something on the table to make the so-called stray dogs of Philippine sports taken cared of like a lovable hound.

Senator Pia has the numbers. And it goes like this—2620.

If you ask me further, that’s the number of the Senate Bill she is pushing for the creation of the Philippine High School for Sports (PHSS). So how will SB 2620 be the loving arms for a deprived Azkal?

Think about this. What Manny Pacquiao lacked in his younger days is one thing common among many Filipino athletes—education.

This reality reflects a growing social concern that has become of late very disturbing and imminent. Not that we cringe everytime Manny speaks English before millions of live television audience or when he delivers a privilege speech in Congress. Not because we jawdrop listening to the elegant twang of Fil-foreign athletes like Nonito Donaire, Phil Younghusband, or Kelly Williams.

Think of the many names in Philippine sports and what have they become after their heydays without an education to lean on to.

A few days after Manny Pacquiao demolished Antonio Margarito, lawyer Carlos Isagani Zarate wrote about his kababayans from GenSan, the co-called Boys of Dadiangas who were not as lucky as Manny. How miserable life has become for the non-Pacquiaos of the past and present generations.

Sports is known as the great equalizer. For the poor boys and girls whose parents cannot afford to send them to school, they use their innate athletic skills honed through life’s tough battles in order to get a scholarship.

The chances of getting an athletic scholarship, however, is as tough as battling it out with the bullies of the barrio.

SB 2620, Senator Pia hopes, will be the answer.

Senator Pia’s office emailed me on Tuesday the full text of the bill along with the excerpts of the Senate Journal of the December 13 session.

Among the salient points of SB 2620 is that it is envisioned to create a school for developmental and national athletes who will be given scholarships either full or partial after a screening based on institutional standards. Non-national athletes may also enrol as paying students. The PHHS curriculum will be tailored-fit to prepare national athletes for a productive life after their careers.

SB 2620 states “it is therefore declared the policy of the State to maximize the athletic abilities of students with the end in view of producing world-class athletes with solid academic background. In line with this, an educational system to foster the total development of the youth, with special emphasis on the enhancement and development of their skills in sports is hereby established.”

In relation to the PHHS, there is another bill pending in the Senate filed by Senator Edgardo Angara and this is Senate Bill 3481 which also seeks to establish the Philippine Sports University. Angara’s version is for the creation of a collegiate institution for athletes.

Recently, the Senate approved the naturalization of Smart Gilas American recruit Marcus Douthit making him eligible to play for the national basketball team. I believe that if the Senate can pass such a legislation speedily, it can also prioritize SB 2620 and SB 3481.

The point here is, the Senate can do sports a lot of loving than just calling for probes that will end up netting nothing. Instead, the Senate can focus on the two bills which I believe may be consolidated as one bill to establish a secondary and collegiate institution for sports. I don’t know what happened to the National Institute of Sports which the PSC inaugurated a few years back but the same can also be incorporated in this legislation which will add masteral and doctorate programs related to sports administration.

The story of the Azkals of football is not an isolated case. It happens to just about every sports association. There are many azkals in Philippine sports lapping its way for attention. Perhaps, the least loved of them all just happened to be the spark we all needed to start the fire of sports revolution.

At least, these Azkals speak with a British accent.

But for the rest of our sports heroes--present and future—hope means holding on to an education.