Cebu – Page 5 – Cebu Sports Blog by John Pages

Siso siblings on Star Sports tonight!

Sally Mae and Bernardine Siso with coaches Butch Bacani (at the back, right) and Mike Mora

You’ve read their three names. Clapped at their trophies. Saw her photo receiving the Outstanding Cebuana award from Mayor Tommy Osmena. Last year, we wept upon hearing of the shocking death of their 40-year-old father, Dino.

Tonight, if you have cable TV, I urge you to tune in to Star Sports at 10 p.m. The show is called “ACE by Sony Ericsson.” It’s no ABS-CBN or GMA-7 production. It’s a weekly tennis show aired all over Asia. Maria Sharapova? James Blake? They’re often featured there. Whose turn is it tonight?

Bernardine, Sally Dine and Sally Mae Siso. It all began four months ago when Mikel Ugarte called to say that Anthony Suntay, the famous TV host, wanted to video a short documentary on the Sisos. I called Anthony, made arrangements for us to meet two Saturdays later at the Casino Espanol and, next thing we knew, the Sisos were being interviewed by Anthony. And so tonight, finally, it’s here: Star Sports, 10 p.m.

It’s Flying! The 30th PAL Intersports

More than 30 years ago in Cebu, a small group of businessmen and professionals huddled together. Among them were the Aboitizes and Ugartes. They played basketball. They dribbled, passed, sprinted down the parquet floor, jump-shot, laughed and high-fived. They had fun.

We ought to do this more often, they said. They did. We ought to invite other executives to join us. They did. We ought to make a tournament, a league, move to a larger venue, bring more players. And, they asked, why not invite friends from other cities? They did. That was over three decades back. Those were the 1970s. The era of Bee Gees and basketball shoes named Adidas Pro-Model.

Fast forward to today, July 22. Exactly one month, one week, one day from today—August 30, 2007—this event which started as a basketball shoot-out among friends is back. It’s back home in Cebu.

The 30th PAL Intersports

THIS IS MAJOR. This will bring tourists. This will be talked about by friends, executives, Ilonggos, Cagayanons, Cebuanos and Filipinos from as far as Las Vegas and Guam. Over 1,000 executives will descend in Cebu from August 30 to September 1 when the 30th PAL Intersports hits this city. Of the 30 years that this event has been held throughout the country, this will be the biggest. A total of 18 clubs are coming–including six from outside RP: from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Guam, Shanghai, Las Vegas and Australia. I attended the press conference last Monday at the City Sports Club and the organizers were in full force. Read what Ed Chiongbian wrote yesterday (July 5) in his column and what Rommel Manlosa, also of Sun.Star, wrote last Tuesday (July 4).

From Cebu City to Wimbledon

RANDY DEL VALLE is Cebuano. He speaks Bisaya, lives in one of the plush subdivisions in Talamban, and works as a top manager at Shell Philippines. But Randy, at this very moment, is not at his office or at home—he’s in London. For years, Randy—a big, big tennis fan—had longed to watch a Grand Slam event. This week, together with his wife Christine, is that moment. This week, he’ll be sitting on one of the green chairs at the All-England Club and watching the green lawns of Wimbledon. Here’s what Randy e-mailed to me today…

Dance On Fire!

If you ask me what’s Cebu’s most sucessful sport, you’ll get a surprising answer. Basketball? Football? Mountain-biking? Chess? Arnis? None of the above. It’s Dancesport. Remember last November 2005 during the South East Asian (SEA) Games? At the Waterfront Lahug, thousands jampacked the ballroom. At the end of the weekend, we held all the gold medal trophies. We partied. We danced.

Only in America? No, Cowboys also Gallop in Cebu

Jacinto Gayanilo Mendez II is a cowboy. No, “Jake” is no grandson of John Wayne nor does he own a ranch at the Alamo in Texas. Like you and a million others, he was born, raised and schooled in Cebu City.So, he’s a cowboy? Yes. Jake owns two horses named Barrack and Maxim. Peer inside his bedroom and you’ll spot four brown hats and pairs of leather boots. He wears gloves, chaps, blue jeans, a thick belt and, yes, the cowboy must-have tool: a revolver.

“We’re urban cowboys,” declared Jake, smiling, when I sat down with him last Tuesday night. His face was all-red; sunburned after the three-day-long feast called the Kabayo Festival. “In Cebu, we’re part a group who owns horses and rides on weekends. We go trail-riding, travel to Bukidnon and join races… So, yes, we’re cowboys, but the only difference is, we live in the city. So, we’re urban cowboys.”

Dr. Jovito Lee writes…

Cebu City Vice Mayor Mike Rama with (left to right) Allan Lim, Jovito Lee and Domingo Te

I share with you an e-mail sent by Dr. Jovito Lee:

1. We read your article regarding the (PBA) event last May12, 2007. Our chapter and leadership training organization, Metro Cebu Uptown Jaycees, Inc. and its foundation, the Metro Cebu Uptown Jaycees Foundation, Inc., were responsible for bringing the PBA to Cebu City after a 2 year drought.

We concur with your assessment that we need a new venue (mega or super dome) to be able to host events like this but due to some obvious reasons (no investors), the New or “Hot” Cebu Coliseum is the only venue at the moment we can offer to the public when big event like the PBA comes to Cebu City. We did all what we can do to make the atmosphere comfortable but again we are in a venue beyond our control and we are in the summer months. We apologize to the public for such inconvenience.

Councilor Jack to the Rescue

“The Big Dome” in Quezon City… the Araneta Coliseum

The other day, May 15, I wrote a column in Sun.Star Cebu entitled, “Cebu Megadome: What We Needed Yesterday.”

Yesterday, I read good news. Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem, the recently re-elected Councilor of Cebu City and the chairman of the games, amusement and professional sports committee at the City Council, announced very good news: “I guess it is the right time to build one for Cebu City,” he announced. “Actually, we had started to negotiate with the National Government and the deal is on, we will build a sports coliseum. We will call it the Megadome…”

That’s welcome news. Thanks, Jack. This proud city of ours deserves no less. How can we call ourselves to tourists and foreigners “better than Manila” if we can’t even build a sportsdome?

Read the full Sun.Star Cebu article (“A ‘megadome’ for Cebu City: Councilor Jack”) penned yesterday by my colleague Rommel Manlosa.

Cebu Megadome: What we needed yesterday

This is NOT the Cebu Coliseum

Last Saturday night, I parked near Colon Street, strolled about 157 meters, and stepped inside the Cebu Coliseum.

San Miguel Beer, the most famous bottle ever produced in this country, paraded 6-foot-6-tall giants who dribbled and dunked as the building’s parquet floor shook. It was the PBA—“Live In Cebu!”—and I arrived midway through the second quarter to watch the Don-Don Hotiveros-less SMB versus the Red Bull Barako contest.

The game was hot! Oven hot. You see, while the Cebu Coliseum is no longer called just “Cebu Coliseum”—they’ve added a first-name and named it “NEW” Cebu Coliseum—I couldn’t figure out what was new about our city’s only sports arena. New? Ha-ha. Instead, I suggest to replace that word with another three-letter word: Hot.

The “Hot Cebu Coliseum.”

Barely seven minutes after I sat down on the front row of the Lower Box, trickles of sweat slipped down my cheeks. And they said this place had air-conditioning? I wonder if those cooling units were the same ones from 1879—the year the Cebu Coliseum was born. (Just kidding. I tried to research when it was built but couldn’t find the answer. But this I’m sure: it was decades and decades and decades ago…)

Isn’t it time for Cebu to have a real NEW COLISEUM?

Imagine with me. Imagine if this proud land of ours, if this city and province that we call “RP’s Best” while those from Manila call “taga-probinsya,” imagine if we had a 25,000-seater arena?

Where to hold Dennis Rodman and his Bad Boys? No problem. Where to stage a future Madonna concert? No problem. Where to hold a Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal exhibition? No problem. Where to hold the Binibing Pilipinas? No problem. Where to hold the World Wrestling Federation rumble?

Sayang. Remember then-governor Pabling Garcia proposed that we build the Cebu Megadome? Where the CICC is now located? Remember that? Had that pushed through—at only a fraction of the CICC’s cost, P250 million—Cebu would be a world-class sports destination today. We’d bring in more tourists. We’d bring in more of our neighbors from Bohol and Cagayan de Oro and Dumaguete to watch and applaud and scream from the stands. And best of all, we’d have no problem where to hold the World Cup of Boxing.

Two months ago, I spoke to Michael Aldeguer, the dashing young son of Antonio Lopez Aldeguer (ALA) who wore a black suit with a silver tie during the Boom-Boom Bautista and AJ Banal fights in Las Vegas. You know what, according to Michael, is Cebu’s problem with the World Cup?

It’s not the fighters. Boom-Boom and AJ won and they’re hungry to gobble nachos and enchiladas with the Mexicans. It’s not the money. Aldeguer has lots and the Cebu City government, with the backing of Mayor Tommy and Councilor Jack Jakosalem, has lots. It’s not the Cebuano audience. There’ll be more of us spectators than there are seats. Remember “Moment of Truth” last March? The Cebu City Sports Center bleachers overflowed. So what’s the problem?

The venue. Why? Because the World Cup of Boxing has to be fought on Saturday night in the US. And Saturday night there means, to us here, Sunday morning. Now. Can you hold a Sunday morning fight—from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.—at the open-air Cebu City Sports Center? Sure you can. But the spectators around the boxing ring will be fried, cooked, torched by the sun. And the whole Sports Center will flood with sweat.

The World Cup of Boxing needs an indoor arena.

The New Cebu Coliseum? Don’t make me laugh. Or sweat.

Cebu to host 30th PAL Intersports

THIS August 30 to September 1, Cebu City will host the 30th PAL Intersports. Over 1,000 executives from 16 cities — this will be the biggest-ever PAL Intersports — including four delegations from the United States and one from Australia, are expected to arrive in Cebu for this annual meet.

The photo was taken last April 20 at the Casino Espanol de Cebu when we hosted the first President’s Coordination Meeting.

This will be a grand event by PAL to fly and land in Cebu!