Category: Cebu

Yesterday (Jan. 29), the group of men and women whose stories you read about in the newspaper Sports Section met to deliberate on the winners for the upcoming SAC-SMC All-Cebu Sports Awards, an annual gathering where top athletes, coaches, individuals and teams are honored. I don’t have the final listing yet of awardees and will post them very soon. But for now, here are our photos from yesterday’s lunch at Cafe Laguna, courtesy of San Miguel Corp. and one of their top honchos, Girlie Garces.

Seated fom left: Marian Baring (Sun.Star Daily), Rick Gabuya (CDN), Manny Villaruel (The Freeman), Girlie Garces (of San Miguel Corporation); (standing, from left) Marsante Alison (The Freeman), Mike Limpag (Sun.Star Cebu), Raffy Osumo (The Freeman), Jun Migallen (Sun.Star Superbalita), Caecent Noot-Magsumbol (The Freeman), Brian Ochoa (CDN), John Pages, and Nimrod Quinones (The Freeman)

My good friend Noel Villaflor, the former Copy Editor and, at one time, Sports Editor, of Sun.Star Cebu, has returned to writing. Today, Saturday (Dec. 29), is the first day of his first column on the sports pages of the leading regional newspaper in the Philippines.

Noel is a big, big football fan. He follows the worldwide football news, reads about the latest RP soccer stories and, best of all, plays football himself. So his column, aptly called “FOOTNOTE,” is perfect for Cebu. You can read his column here.

When Cebu hosted the 30th PAL Intersports last month, we achieved the status of organizing not only the biggest-ever PAL Intersports in history (with over 800 participants) but also the best-organized event since these annual games were held decades back.

Credit goes to Mai-Mai Dasmarinas (top photo, left; with K), the energetic head of the Secretariat, and her group of young men and women who labored night and day to make the 30th PAL Intersports another success for our city named Ceboom! Check out more photos here…

Last Saturday at 8 p.m., the Grand Convention Center overflowed. Red, blue, green, white—name a T-shirt color, it was visible. Ilonggo, Tagalog, Cebuano, Chabakano—name a dialect, it was represented. Bowling, basketball, billiards, badminton, golf, tennis—name a sport, it was played.

After 30 years of existence and three days of dripping sweat and pumped fists and friendly handshakes, the 30th PAL InterSports concluded last weekend.

Sev Sarmenta stood as emcee and made us laugh. Bernadette Sembrano, his co-emcee, was pretty in her short, brown hair—and how she charmed the men. Sitti (above photo), the Bossa Nova singer who’s only 20, wore a leg-revealing dress and soothed everyone’s muscle pains with her voice. Philippine Airlines’ top honchos were all in attendance, led by president Jaime Bautista.

Overall champions? Of course, who else but the host club: Los Jefes de Cebu. Out of the six sporting events, we topped almost each one…

In all, this wasn’t only the biggest-ever PAL Intersports in history—but also the best-organized. To Los Jefes de Cebu, hail to the Chiefs!

Congratulations to Edgar Chiongbian (above, right), the president of Los Jefes de Cebu, and Bunny Pages, the tournament chairman of the 30th PAL InterSports!

Finally, it’s done. And with Philippine Airlines and Air Philippines as sponsors, the event succeeded with flying colors. The 30th PAL Intersports, composed of 12 teams from all over the Philippines (including squads from Australia and Guam), concluded last night with the Awarding Ceremonies at the Grand Convention Center. It was an unprecedented success. Over 800 executives arrived to compete in six events: golf, tennis, badminton, billiards, bowling and basketball.

Did you know that the PAL Intersports started in Cebu when a group of executives got together to play basketball? From that small group—which included the Aboitizes, Ugartes, Aldeguers, Lhuilliers—it expanded to include teams from out of town. Today, 30 years later, it’s grown into one large, nationwide, smiling, healthy family.

To Los Jefes de Cebu, led by my “neighbor” on this page, Ed Chiongbian, and my dad, Bunny Pages, the tournament chairman, and the rest of the organizing team—a big round of applause to you!

More than 30 years ago, a group of executives and businessmen from Cebu City decided to get together for a friendly game of basketball. They met again. And again. Every Sunday. They agreed to invite more friends. The group’s numbers grew. They decided to invite teams from out of town to play them in friendly games. This continued and continued and… look what we have now. Thirty years after, it’s one of the biggest gatherings of executives and businessmen to play sports. It’s the 30th PAL Intersports. It finally kicked off yesterday at 1:30 p.m. at the City Sports Club with the Opening Ceremonies. Right after, Chester Cokaliong and his basketball team representing the Los Jefes de Cebu played. The rest of the players scattered among the five other sports (apart from basketball, there’s tennis, golf, billiards, bowling and badminton). Last night (Thursday night) there was a Welcome Party for all. What a great start thus far!

The Muses during the Opening

INTRAMS. Don’t you love the sound of that word? Intramurals. Sportsfest. One full week of no Math, books, lectures, Science, blackboards. One full week of cheering, eating junk food, running, wearing sleeveless shirts.

I love Intrams. To me, it’s the best week of the entire school year.

Two days ago, I visited the sprawling and humongous brand-new Mandaue campus of the Cebu Doctors’ University. I sat in as one of the judges of the Miss Intrams. Six beauties paraded. Hundreds danced. Thousands clapped.

Yesterday, I strolled inside another site: the University of San Carlos Main campus. Six volleyball players faced six enemies across the net. Nearby, tennis players volleyed and smashed while the swimmers plunged to the pool.

I love Intrams. In elementary at the La Salle Bacolod, I recall sprinting the 100-meter dash and competing in games named basketball, volleyball, football. As a Grade 5 student, I sat alongside High School and College students—they mixed us with the upper levels—and, while swapping high-fives with teenagers, felt like a “big boy.”