MANILA, 22 August 2003 — The fund-raising campaign initiated by First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo for the Filipino athletes competing in the coming Vietnam Southeast Asian Games reached 20 million pesos, sending smiles to the athletes and a heave of sigh to sports officials at the Palace.
The additional fund coming from the country’s various top corporations will be spent for the athletes’ buildup for the Games set in Hanoi and Ho Chih Mihn City on Dec. 5-13, while expenses for the actual participation in the meet will come from President Arroyo’s fund.
In expressing the need for more corporate partners for sports, lawyer Arroyo raised the call for a more active involvement of the private sector in sports development while pushing his project dubbed “Medalyang Ginto...May Laban Tayo” as an added boost to the Filipino athletes’ drive for more gold medals in Vietnam.
“We (government) have given enough. But that enough is not enough, and we need the private sector to help push our collective dream of seeing more young Filipinos hoist the Philippine flag in more international competitions. And we will begin that dream in the Vietnam SEA Games,” Mr. Arroyo said.
San Miguel Corp., the country’s leading food conglomerate, pitched in a whopping 10 million pesos that started the ball rolling for more pledges, earning several rounds of applause from the athletes and selected officials from the various National Sports Associations.
“It’s a very heartwarming gesture from the representatives of the country’s top corporations, specially San Miguel and the other companies which came to support the athletes,” Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Eric Buhain said.
Philippine Olympic Committee President Celso Dayrit also lauded the project, saying: “We are very grateful to the donors. The athletes will greatly benefit from this project initiated by the First Gentleman Foundation.” Eighty-five gold medal potentials from†17 sports will benefit from the additional funding coming from the pledges, which will go straight to the PSC coffers. These are: archery, athletics, bowing, cycling, diving, fencing, judo, karate-do, pencak silat, rowing, shooting, gymnastics, swimming, taekwondo, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.
PSC Commissioner Ramirez to Quit Post
Commissioner William “Butch” Ramirez has said he is quitting his post as commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) soon.
Ramirez pointed out he is leaving voluntarily and that there is no pressure for him to step down. He made the confirmation in Malaca?ang after the fund-raising activities initiated by First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo to benefit Filipino athletes set to compete in the Vietnam Southeast Asian Games on Dec. 5-13. Ramirez, the first Mindanaoan to be appointed in the powerful sports body which serves as the purse of the Philippine sports community, said: “When the President tells me to go, I will go. But I have given myself a time on when to leave and I’ve set my mind on it.”
But he denied President Arroyo is set to give him the boot.
‘Django’ Wins in US
Billiards ace Francisco Bustamante won the lag in the tie-break and kept John Horsfall on his chair, running out the final rack to win the International Challenge of Champions at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Bustamante, a semifinalist in the recent World Pool Championship in Cardiff, Wales, had an easy 5-3 win in the first set but Horsfall, the Canadian 9-Ball champion, battled back from two racks down to win 5-4 in the next to force the one-rack tie-breaker. Bustamante, who won $50,000, took a 2-0 lead in the second set but Horsfall rallied and won the next three games to take the upperhand 3-2.
In the final rack of the set, Horsfall ran out of position on the 2-ball and missed, giving Bustamante ball in hand. Bustamante played safe on the 2-ball but Horsfall calmly sank a well-thought 2-4 carom and proceeded to run the rack to force a one game tie breaker. However, Horsfall did not even get a chance to shoot after that as Bustamante scored a break-and-run for the top prize.
UAAP Sets Own Dope Test on its Players
Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) president Jose Capistrano has said the league is set to implement a random drug-testing program when the UAAP men’s basketball begins its second round this weekend.
Capistrano said the board has finally agreed on the amount it would be spending in finally implementing the random drug-test. The UAAP president, who succeeded National University’s senior board representative Sonny Paguia this season, added the random drug test would be applied in all sports. Capistrano also said Dr. Raul Canlas of the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine would personally supervise the random drug test to ensure the procedure would be correct and free of controversies.
Filipina Weightlifters 6th in Bali
Despite failure to land in the medal standing, the Philippine women’s team placed sixth overall while its men’s counterpart wound up 12th in the Asian Junior Men’s Women’s Championships at the Grand Bali Beach Hotel and Resort in Bali, Indonesia.
Elma Bacaro earned 63 points in the women’s 48 kgs while Annie Revillas got 21 points in the 69-kgs play as the Filipinas’s 84-point output gave them sixth spot in the team classification behind Indonesia (510), China (445), Taipei (307), India (156) and Korea (157). The RP lady lifters, who finished ahead of Kazakhstan (67), Malaysia (65), and Japan (27), got a trophy for placing sixth in the tournament for lifters aged 16-20.
