JEDDAH, 26 April — A total of 28 teams paraded in their colorful uniforms it the opening ceremony of the 6th Seiko-13th FBA Independence Cup held at Sheraton Compound Basketball Court in commemoration with the 104th Philippine Independence Celebration.
An estimated crowd of more than one thousand five hundred people attended the event. Hussam S. Salahi and Mohamed Ali Taleb representing the principal sponsor (Al-Hussaini & Co., distributor of Seiko watches in Saudi Arabia), Fuzail Ahmed of Sabil Al-Khair Services and Marketing Co. Ltd. (distributor of Completa Coffee Creamer and Rainbow Milk), Merchandising Team of AL-Rabie Dairy Co. Ltd. (Pulz Athletic Drinks), Merchandising Group headed by Gregg Ochoa of NIVEA (Al-Injazat Trading Corporation), Yousef Ali Javed, country manager of Royal Brunei, Chris Rimorin, representing Asif Mobin, marketing manager of Saudi Snack Foods (Lays chips), Ben Garcia of SkyFreight Forwarders, Bert Nulud of CMS International Services, Manolo Carandang and William Sali of ANB Telemoney, Rene Mactal of Juffali Bros., Fahad Rustom and Anwar Hafez of Saudi Binladen Group — RPD and distinguished community leaders of KASAPI Congress like Benjamin Garcia, Gerry Cuares, Rudy Dianalan and Cesar Lontoc and Meliton Negrido of OFWCC graced the successful event. The opening ceremony started with the welcome remarks of FBA head Gil Manese. He acknowledged the presence of the invited guests and sponsors, thanked all members and organizers of participating teams for their unwavering support and concluded by saying that the tournament has all the good ingredients of a good cagefest, good court, best teams, best players and a very efficient and top caliber organizer.
It was followed by the inspirational talk of Hussam Salahi (Sales & Marketing Manager of Seiko) who again pledged the full support of Seiko in future tournaments of FBA. He appreciated FBA’s professionalism in handling basketball tournaments. This the 6th time that we are sponsoring FBA basketball tournaments and we are looking forward for more in the future, he said. He also expressed his profound thanks and gratitude to the very huge crowd and wished them all good luck and advised them to play good basketball and be good sport. Intermission numbers were rendered by Richard Balgos and representatives of Al Majal Srervice Master through the kindness of Ken Bautista.
Philcongen Administrative Officer Mohamad Taha Guinomla delivered his message for and on behalf of Consul General Kadatuan P. Usop. He congratulated the organizing committee for the job well done. Congressmen Gerry Cuares and Rudy Dianalan of KASAPI Congress expound on the importance of the approval of the Absentee Voting Bill this year and said that it is now high time to exercise our right of suffrage, which has been denied to us for the last fourteen years. Mike Ali of POLO and Bagong Bayani awardee Bobby Dalos were also present.
Adjudged as winners in best in uniform category were: Inter-Company Bona Fide A — Saudi Oger Co. Ltd. (led by Mario Basilio and managed by Samir Jadallah), Inter-Company Bona Fide B — Mohammed Binladen (BLO) team mentored by Lodie Celestial and Inter-Commercial Non Rated — NAI — Juffali — Managed by David Jeans and engineered by Alex Vidal. Best Muse category was taken away by the muses of Seiko — Al Badr (Inter-Company Bona Fide A), Lays — Saudi Snack Food (Danette Geraldo) and King Faisal Naval Base (DCN LOG) — Inter-Commercial Non Rated Reinforced.
