Category: sports

Bagyó, bahâ, boksing, bangág

Now that the rainy season is always also flood season, thanks to decades of deforestation and corruption and bad governance, this week has been more depressing than usual, with most of our kababayans on disaster-mode, tapos lumabas pa yung balita na bilyunbilyong piso na naman ang nakalaan for flood control programs sa 2025 budget na alam naman nating walang patutunguhan as usual dahil sa laki ng komisyon ng mga mambabatas at mga kontratista, at dahil wala naman talagang master plan na sinusunod para kabit-kabit at pang-kabuoan ang solusyon.

ALEX MAGNO. Shortly, we will be given some numerical estimate of the destruction caused by rain. It will always be an understatement. It cannot possibly quantify all the horrors, the discomfort, the dislocation, the loss of productive time and the great heroism put in by our small army of rescuers – all these escape national accounting.

We are wrapped in an overpowering sense of helplessness inflicted on our people by incessant calamity. My phone is full of calls for prayer from those completely daunted by the warning that rains will continue pouring the coming days. Having given up on government, our people are pleading for divine intervention. https://www.philstar.com/

Yes, the collective sense of helplessness is more pronounced than usual, with, I imagine, a simmering stewing discontent, coming, hopefully, from the populace being now more aware, better informed, via their smart phones, about who is, are, to blame for the terrible miserable state of affairs countrywide, i.e., no less than our powerful government officials, past and present — fat politicians and their minions and subalterns — who don’t really care about nation, only about making hay while the sun shines, because it can’t go on forever, it’s not sustainable, one day the system will collapse, crumble, from sheer instability.

MEANWHILE, as we await BBM‘s SONA (na sana hindi nakakasuya) and some First Lady video that’s soon to drop (or so we hear, at sana fake nga) and the Supreme Court decision on the impeachment (na sana ipaubaya sa Senado) and VP Sara‘s impeachment trial (na sana masimulan na nang matapos na), like everyone else I am so looking forward to the boxing match that Davao City Vice Mayor Baste Duterte sort of challenged PNP Chief Gen. Nicolas Torre to.

“Matapang ka lang naman, you have the position. Pero kung suntukan tayo, alam ko kaya kita kung gano’n lang. You are a coward. You are nothing without your position,” said Duterte during an episode of his podcast Basta Dabawenyo on July 20.

The PNP chief accepted the challenge on Wednesday, July 23, and suggested turning the 12-round bout into a ‘boxing match for a cause,’ aimed at raising funds for victims of the recent floods and southwest monsoon or habagat. https://dzrh.com.ph/

Di lang malinaw kung saan magaganap — Araneta Coliseum, Amoranto Stadium, o Rizal Memorial — pero ang mas dumadagundong na tanong ay, sisipot ba si Baste? Sabi ni Ronald Llamas sa Storycon, kung hindi daw sumipot, ok lang, basta nandoon si General Torre at “yung mga iba, magdadala ng mga relief para sa mga nasalanta, magiging parang relief operation.”   https://www.youtube.com/

At heto pa si Senator Ping Lacson who tweeted early Thursday morning @iampinglacson:

A credible source told me last night, the CEO of a popular resort casino hotel, a well-known philanthropist is willing to open their ballroom for the “charity boxing match” between Nick Torre and Baste Duterte. For the sake [of] the many poor flood victims, let’s do it! https://x.com/iampinglacson/

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BREAKING NEWS. Thursday, just before 6 p.m. the Dabawenyo responded to the general:

BASTE: ‘Wag ka mag-alala, Torre, kasi matagal ko na talagang gustong makabugbog ng unggoy. Kung gusto mo lang talaga ng suntukan, bakit kailangan mo pa ng charity-charity. Why do you need … kailangan mo pang gamitin yang nangyayari ngayon na baha diyan sa Metro Manila. If you’re really serious about this, kung gusto mo yung charity na yan, and you’ve laid some conditions, let me lay my own conditions for the event. Kung serious ka talaga, ha. These are my conditions. Pakiusapan mo yang amo mo na presidente, and let it come out of his mouth, that all elected officials should undergo a hair follicle drug test. Papalagan ko yang charity-charity mo na yan. Walang problema. If it will answer the issues nitong bansa natin, I can do that. https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=baste%20torre%20fight

I’m so disappointed, lol. Bakit biglang na-drag in (no pun intended) si BBM?  Eh it was all about Baste bragging that he could beat Torre in a fistfight. Gusto ko lang naman makita, maalaman, kung totoo. Given that Torre is all of 18 years older than he, Baste is kinda llamado. What if, pinatumba muna niya si Torre, AND THEN he followed it up with that demand — na hindi pa rin masusunod malamang, na magpa-drug test lahat ng elected officials, but at least then he would be coming from a stronger position than now, when he’s being seen as the one pala who’s duwag (or so commenters are saying on facebook threads).

And then again, baka wala lang sa kondisyon si Baste, so he’s playing for time? Which would mean that Torre had a fighting chance sana, kung sa Sunday na ang laban. Shucks, we’ll never know now. Back to regular programming, ika nga.

Caloy and Chloey

I totally disagree with PR peeps who say that Caloy needs a PR manager to script | edit his statements and get Chloey to exit frame muna. Biglang bawal to be honest and candid?  Mas mabuting itago sa publiko ang alitan ng mag-ina at magpaka-plastic na lang? But he’s not some politician who needs to sell himself, or some capitalist who needs to sell his goods, to a doubting and PR-gullible public. Caloy doesn’t need selling. Bentang benta na siya just by being the Olympic champion that he is. Walang labis, walang kulang.

At doon sa nagsasabing si Chloey lang ang winner sa mother-son brouhaha… it’s so not true. Si Caloy ang Winner. Of two Olympic Golds — beat that before you dare tell him how to live his life!  And Winner din siya for the unabashed thanks to the girlfriend who saw him through his quest for Gold through thick and thin.  Good for him, na kinaya niya to give credit where it is due, rather than pander to conservatives who insist that the mother should always come first, no matter what, or something like that. Good of Caloy. May his tribe increase.

Manny Pacquiao—Fearsome Fighter, Pop-Culture Punchline

By Will Leitch

Even when their lives are often anything but, boxers are afforded an undeniable dignity. At least in our popular culture. Our admiration for boxers is as profound as our fear of them, and we treat them accordingly. Jake LaMotta, some dumb palooka from the Bronx, is given a deeply respectful, almost regal treatment by the most serious filmmaker of our time. Muhammad Ali is the closest thing we have to an American saint. Heck, Mike Tyson: Even when you’re playing along with him on Jimmy Kimmel, you do it out of a certain terror; part of the excitement of watching Tyson goof off is the sense that he could explode and start decking everybody in sight any second. The great punchline of The Hangoverisn’t “In the Air Tonight;” it’s when, after Tyson floors Alan with one punch, Stu can’t help but be impressed: He’s still got it, man. They are granted warrior status, for life.

And then there is Manny Pacquiao.

Read on…

michael is gold!

couldn’t believe that i had not heard / read of michael christian martinez before sochi 2014.  my bad?  and/or media’s?  whatever, that was quite a two-night high, watching this 17-year old competing with the world’s best and being dazzled by his talent and passion and tenacity.

on facebook it was good that above the babel of high hopes for a gold (sana matisod ang japan at canada, haha), there was the voice of prof. neil garcia, once a rollerskater and skateboarder himself, who has been following the olympic event “since forever,” and who placed it all in perspective in this thread of observations.

J. Neil C. Garcia

just to make the cut for the free skate–that’s achievement enough (his real olympics will be in 2018, when he will hopefully have a quad or quads, and his other triples will be more secure, his line more graceful and powerful).

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but what an olympics this has been! first, there was that obviously scripted but still shocking withdrawal by plushenko (that had the bulk of the audience–russians, naturally–heading for the exit); then there was jeremy abbott’s horrendous fall (that visibly knocked the wind out of him) and grim determination to finish his skate anyway (reassembling his program from scratch, almost, well enough to still rack up some points); then there was yuzuru’s incredible score, followed closely enough by patrick’s (and the two of them are way out ahead of the rest of the finalists); then there was the almost pitifully empty arena (less than a quarter of the seats were occupied); then there were all these botched quads, popped triples, and falls, all resulting in unseemly and unbecomingly low scores for most of the competitors… the pertinent ‘first’ of course is the entry and qualification of our own lone teenage olympian, who has certainly done us all proud. a memorable evening it has been, after all. here’s to a respectable and clean free skate for mcm tomorrow!

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mcm himself admitted in the post-skate interview that his combination jumps are his waterloo. without them naman, he can’t go very far in the free skate. if i were him, i’d go for a double (rather than a triple) toe tacked at the end of a triple lutz and a triple loop and that second triple axel. pwede na yun. don’t na try for a triple triple. basta clean, para memorable na rin. and his ina bauer, which is great, along with the biellmann: female moves, and among the guys only he can do them–he should highlight them as transitions.

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he doesn’t have the mature line and edges yet. clearly visible, this youthfulness, when seen side by side the higher-scoring skaters that came after him. he’ll gain all of that with more training. i really hope he gets a sponsor–maybe some rich tycoon, fil or filam–who will put him up in michigan or somewhere else in the us, and basically allow him the opportunity to get better at his craft.

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his nebelhorn and earlier competitions saw him holding his positions longer. it’s the nerves–they obviously got to him, even if only a little.

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who wrote this report? several triple axles? he did just one triple aXEL; a downgraded triple lutz combo (ended up doubling the toe loop), a triple loop and a cantilever (a kind of inside-edge spread eagle, with knees bent, back leaning). his best (because unique elements) were in the transitions (the ina bauer, for example) and the spins (the i-spin and the biellmann). hay. it’s time we brush up on the elements of this very complicated sport.

yes, and it’s time that government and the tycoons give the young man all the support he clearly deserves.  we have in michael a national treasure, so young and already skating, strutting, on the world stage, doing the nation proud.  and those 10 minutes when he was number one of six, that was a glimpse of gold that augurs great for his future.