A letter from Boy Tiukinhoy

Tiukinhoy (right) with CDN Sports Editor Ricky Gabuya during the 2008 Cebu Sports Awards

I received an email at 1:44 p.m. yesterday. The sender? Felix Tiukinhoy, Jr. He’s not only the President of Virginia Farms, Inc. but, in the world of sports, he’s the commissioner of Cesafi. Spelled in full, that’s the Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation, Inc. Since the league started in 2001, one man has stood on top of the organization, receiving neither large salary nor high praises in this thankless job. In full, I reprint Tiukinhoy’s letter:

“Hi John: Let me inform you offhand that your feature of me sometime ago as ‘The David Stern of Cebu’ is properly framed and hung on the wall behind me. So many visitors in my office notice it and I am very happy and honored of what you wrote; sometimes the visitors will tell me that I look handsome when I was young. Hehehe.

“Let me again thank the CESAFI Team for their support to all the activities from the Board of Trustees, Athletic Directors, Tournament Managers, especially Fr. Manny Uy, S.J., President, CESAFI; Deputy Commissioner of Basketball Danny Duran, Deputy Basketball on other sports, Dr. Danilo Villadolid, the Secretariat workhorse, Mr. Bernard Ricablanca, Rico Navarro and all the others who have one or the other helped so much for the success of CESAFI. I am honored to work with you all.

“Our assessment of the 14th Cesafi Basketball Season is relatively fair in fans attendance in watching the basketball games as compared to the previous seasons. Several factors caused the fair attendance:

“POSITIVE: 1) The presence of foreign players in USC, SWU, UV, and USJ-R added excitement. 2) The support of the school and their Alumni for their teams especially in the recruitment of players and financial assistance. 3) The media support for the awareness. 4) The coaches and players played a high level basketball in the spirit of sportsmanship. 5) The suspension of key players of UV by management for disciplinary action to play in the current season.

“NEGATIVE: 1) The withdrawal of USP-F to participate this season in the College Division. 2) Good Cesafi Players after graduating high school are all pirated by school teams form Manila.”

ATENEO-UV. “With the SHS-Ateneo vs. UV finals in high school, I was surprised that it reached Game 3. SHS-ADC beat UV three times in the tournament including Game 1. In Game 2, SHS-ADC brought their fans that practically made the gym color blue. Only a handful, around 20 pax, of boisterous UV fans were present.

“I already told Fr. Manny, sitting beside me as President of CESAFI, that the SHS-ADC boys are tense because of the presence of so many fans including their parents and relatives.

“In Game 3, the presence of fans of both sides created a level of playing field, one side of the gym was a sea of blue and the other side, green. Father Manny did not sit beside me but went on stage as he said he wants to cheer too for his team. Hehehe. That game should not be watched by one who has a heart condition.

“In all 3 games, we commend the coaches and players for their sportsmanship. It made our job in the Commissioner’s Office easier and pleasant.”

COLLEGE. “With the USC-SWU collegiate finals: Game 1, USC was tense and showed that USC boys still lack championship experience but in Game 2, USC made the adjustment that SWU was not able to prepare. Imagine, Macmac Tallo (SWU star player) was not able to make a point in the game. This will be a long series.

“With USC, yes it is very good that USC is in the finals again since 2007. It offers a different profile of the fans.

“Supposedly, the CESAFI Final Series will be covered live nationwide by ABS-CBN – Sports. Somebody from them reneged in the arrangement without informing us. This was supposed to be a first in our CESAFI basketball. They covered it but I don’t know when they will show it on TV.”