JEDDAH, 15 August 2003 — An agreement was recently signed between the Filipino Basketball Association (FBA), headed by Gil Manese, and Abdul Rahman Al-Hussaini of Al-Hussaini & Co. (distributor of the world famous Seiko watches in Saudi Arabia) for the ninth edition of the Seiko-FBA cagefest. This was made possible through the initiative and kindness of Hussam S. Salahi (sales & marketing manager) and Mohd. Ali Taleb (import department).
Dubbed as the “9th Seiko-17th FBA Presidential Cup 2003” the tournament is organized by the FBA in honor of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is scheduled to visit the kingdom in the month of September to meet the OFWs in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in relation with the ongoing registration of voters.
Manese, a veteran sports organizer and an active community leader from KASAPI Congress, also called on his colleagues to help in the dissemination of information to encourage more voters to register by Sept. 30.
The FBA organizing committee is now busy preparing for the opening day of their next tourney on Sept. 5 at Ittihad Sports Club. Tournament officials Hernan Huerto and Estelito Martin are out to make this an exciting tourney. A series of exhibition games will be held from the opening day up to the end of the tournament. A Dammam Selection are scheduled to come to Jeddah to play with the Jeddah All Stars, well known teams from Manila are also slated to visit the Kingdom within the duration of the tournament. Negotiations are now under way in this regard.
So far, 30 teams have already indicated their interest in the upcoming tournament but only a maximum of 24 teams will be accepted, Manese said.
Among the teams now being considered are the following: Experts (Eli Sarmiento), WRJ Freight Forwaders (Jagg Malit), Hanco Maintenance (Edgar Ainza), Junastar Cargo Services (Jun Astilla), Al-Majal Service Master (Ken Bautista), Wartsila (Noel Atienza), Hempel Paints (Mel Tienzo), NAI-Juffali (Alex Vidal), Bridgestone (Amin Bahartha), Afkar Promo Seven, Saco Hardware, Cafe Aroma, Unilever (AXE), Saudi Oger Ltd. (Mario Basilio), BLO Binladen (Lody Celestial), RPD-Binladen (Anwar Hafez), Al-Kurdi Company, Dr. Erfan Bagedo Hospital (Ademar Suson), GNP Hospital (Ronnie Nicandro), King Faisal Specialists Hospital (Mila Saballe), Saudi Diyar Consultants (Jameel Del Rosario), SADAFCO (Rolly Suing), Al Yanabie Est. (Joseph Villanueva), Masa Pest Control (Gary Talastas), Tetra Pak (Rodney Estanislao), King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital (Ric Aguinaldo), Al Tayar Plastic Co. (Omie Araneta), GTC (Ali Naser) and Bentleys Tea (Nap Solis).
A general meeting will be held on Sunday (Aug. 17) from 8:00 p.m. at the Tropicana Restaurant. The principal sponsor of the tourney is Al-Hussaini & Co. (Seiko) through the generosity of Abdul Rahman Al-Hussaini, Hussam S. Salahi and Mohd. Ali Taleb. Other sponsors are Samsung Electronics (United Matbouli Group) through Adnan Matbouli, Essam Abbas and Ehab Hamud, Friesland Middle East - Rainbow Milk (Wout Mathjis and Fuzail Ahmed), Qatar Airways (Samir Carali), ABS-CBN The Filipino Channel, Metito Arabia Industries (Nort Areglado), Giordano Fashions (M.A.K. Jeelani), and Sports World Tailoring.
