They are the Champions

The Sablayan team has been enjoying their crown as queens of the Palarong Panlalawigan secondary girls’ basketball for half a decade now. The town hosts the sports festival held November 18 to 22, 2019.

The 2019 batch is led by their main skipper Marigel Ann J. Arbatin, 16, a resident of Barangay Ligaya and wearing jersey number 1. Arbatin, a senior high school student of Sablayan National Comprehensive High School or SABNAHIS taking up Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) Strand is into basketball since 2015 when she and her family moved from Quezon City to their present abode. Originally an elementary sprinter from Olive Grove School, Arbatin looks forward to join the big league in the future like Samantha Harada of National University (NU) Lady Bulldogs who also hails from Ligaya. Marigel, along with Agnes Genata, Kristin Joy Baquirin and Nica Sibugan are regular features in HS women’s basketball scene in Occidental Mindoro.

The team won all of their games, reason why they are declared as the 2019 Provincial Meet champions courtesy of, among other players, Vanessa Tumaca’s lethal running jump shots. Manning, I mean taking, the center position is Novie Jane Reyes, the tallest gal in the line-up who first tried volleyball but seeing her potentials in heft and height, her coach then preferred her to fill the gap in the basketball roster.

Reyes roots for Candace Parker who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Parker was the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. This is Reyes’ first time to join the provincial sports meet. Reyes has great potential in the game if led to the right path of the sport.

A total of 8 lady cagers from Sablayan will be in Team Occidental Mindoro in next year’s MIMAROPA-RAA Meet right here in the province. Arbatin, Reyes, Genata, Baquirin and Sibugan will be joined by Patrice Robles, Evelyn De Dios and Elaine Magalong. Other members of the champion lady team are Princess Sulite and J-Zel Heart Sampaga. They are under the tutelage of Coach Ric Casuncad. But in the last 4 years, they were shaped into dribbing and shooting machines by Mr. Monique Benedicto, this year’s head of delegation for the secondary level in the municipality.

I am a Larry Bird fan and allow me to “tweet” this: “A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals,” says Larry. Sablayan again emerged as the meet's over-all champion, back-to-back.

Champions are measured by championships and that is always the name of the game.

Congratulations, young ladies…

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(Photo: Anjhun Manzano)

Manny Meets a Mangyan

Manny Pacquiao’s boxing unifies Filipinos no doubt. Mangyans coming from the boondocks go down to town proper to watch him fight. In San Jose, they troop to venues whenever Pac-Man’s bouts were featured for free on screen. 

Though the Mangyans do not interact with the lowlanders, they stay quietly in one nook of the area watching the bout unobtrusively. Councilor Ruben C. Aldaba is the Indigenous People’s Mandatory Representative (IPMR) to the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) of Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro, just like his people back in Pandalagan, their indigenous cultural community, the November 4 meeting with the people’s champ is to be treasured for such a gathering is one in a million.

The Alangan Mangyan IPMR admires Manny Pacquiao, the boxer. Senator Pacquiao asked Councilor Aldaba about the road condition in the province and the 12-time world title winner in 8 weight divisions was elated when the IP legislator told him that the road is now okay. Pacquiao said something about his first professional fight in the acclaimed Boxing Mecca of Occidental Mindoro, the Municipality of Sablayan. Aldaba requested for a photo opportunity and Pacquaio agreed, therefore, the photo above.

Allow me to take this opportunity to say something about the Alangan, the ethno-linguistic group of Mangyans where Ruben Aldaba belongs. The Alangan tribe is one of the 8 Mangyan ethnic groups. They live in the wide area around Mt. Halcon and nearby areas. The sub-tribe occupies the northern part of Occidental and Oriental Mindoro.

The economic life of the Alangans is primarily based on the upland agriculture or commonly known as the kaingin system. Alangan Mangyans practice swidden farming, which consists of eleven stages. Two of them are the firebreak-making (agait) and the fallowing (agpagamas). A firebreak is made so the fire will not go beyond the swidden site where the vegetation is thoroughly dry and ready for burning. Two years after clearing, cultivation of the swidden is normally stopped and the site is allowed to revert back to forest (Quiaoit, 1997). Contrary to some misconceptions, the indigenous and old Alangan way of doing the kaingin is sustainable and ecologically friendly. 

Mangyans are also known for betel nut chewing (also known as ―nganga) (Leykamm, 1979). They chew the betel nut with great fervor from morning to night because this makes them not to feel hungry. This is poverty as experienced by our IPs.

As a child, Manny Pacquiao’s family was so poor that he had to drop out of school at age 14 and move to Manila in hopes of making money to support his mother and five siblings. He spent time living on the streets, but eventually found his way onto the Philippine national amateur boxing team. Within two years he won his first two professional fights in Sablayan and the rest is history.

IPMR Ruben and all his Alangan brethren know that Pacquiao is a sort of a national hero, worth millions, and arguably the most famous Filipino in the world. With regards to poverty the SenaPac has this to say: "Poverty does not make me angry," he said. "But it makes me feel bad inside, and I want to help. I want the people of the Philippines to be happy, even if they have nothing. Even if they can just have enough to eat food three times a day." Lest we forget too that the Mangyans are the poorest of the poor among us, people of the island of Mindoro. They eat only once or at times, two times a day.

Pacquiao, the boxer (not the politician) gave the Filipino people a reason to keep hoping, dreaming and working hard. That day, Pacquiao’s hardened knuckles and Aldaba’s calloused hand clasped…

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Photo : Jasper H. Francisco

References:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/boxing/manny-pacquiao/11243572/Manny-Pacquiao-36-reasons-why-fans-love-Filipino-idol.html

https://www.sanbeda-alabang.edu.ph/bede/images/researchpublication/UGONG/5-Ugong_Issue_5.2_-_FINAL.doc-_with_corrections-2nd_revision.pdf

Of Marffin and Risa and the SOGIE Bill

It was a close encounter between Municipal SK Federation President Marffin Bayog Dulay and Senator Ana Theresia "Risa" Navarro Hontiveros-Baraquel.

The lady solon, in the middle of the opening handshake, solicited the support of the ex-officio Sangguniang Bayan member and simultaneously serving as the Sangguniang Kabataan Chairperson of Barangay Poblacion in Sablayan on the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression (SOGIE) Equality Bill but the latter didn’t say a word about it. All the senator got is a smile. The visiting local officials exchanged pleasantries with her before the official business meeting went on.

Aside from SB Dulay, present in the meeting with Senator Hontiveros last November 4, 2019 are SBs Bong V. Urieta, Jun-Jun C. Ventura, Greg A. Villar, Obet Z. Dawates, Jaebee A. Dawates, Salvy U. de Vera, Mc. King O. Legaspi, Ruben C. Aldaba, and Vice-Mayor Bong Marquez.

The eldest child of Rufino Dulay and Mary Bayog who was born on October 9, 1996, though member of the LGBTQIA+ community is critical of the bill. SB Dulay, being a devout Catholic, believes that just like another individual human being, any human condition is an instrument for spiritual renewal and salvation. “Regardless of our sex or gender, each of us is called to fulfill God’s will in our lives,” says the young dreamer who believes in the value of divine intervention who calls for a PUSH (Pray Until Something Happens). By the way, SB Dulay is a product of a Catholic school. The SK Fed prexy graduated at Colegio de San Sebastian with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with various recognition in academic and non-academic areas.

SB Marffin is an active member and leader of different youth organizations that showcases the participation and involvement of youth in a more productive and inclusive venues and served as Presiding Officer of Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) and an enthusiastic member of the Gender and Development Focal Point System, Municipal Peace and Order Council, Municipal Anti-Drug Abuse Council, Municipal Advisory Council of PNP in Sablayan. On the other hand, Hontiveros is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, which conducts the hearings on the SOGIE bill.

Senator Hontiveros believes that her bill is still the best policy tool to protect members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community from discrimination, harassment, and violence. Nonetheless, the senator emphasized from the start that her bill will “take into consideration religious and faith-based sensitivities.”

In May 2019, the SOGIE Equality Bill officially became the longest-running bill under the Senate interpellation period in Philippine history. The bill has become one of the slowest-moving bills in the country's history. 

According to SB Dulay, SOGIE Equality Bill is not the ultimate solution to gender inequality and giving extra rights for the LGBTQIA+ is something to study much further. Anti-discrimination laws are intact and they are enough.

During a tête-à-tête with this lowly blogger, Marffin said that self-respect must come first before you expect respect from others. The youth leader from Sablayan is greatly dismayed when LGBTQIA+ community members fight each other for there are a lot of them are also against the proposed legislation.

“Ang babae kahit anong gawin, babae yan. Ganun din ang lalaki. Kung ikaw ay bakla, lalaki ka pa rin, Kung ikaw ay tomboy, babae ka pa rin. Yan ang masakit na katotohanan. Ngunit kaakibat niyan, isipin mo na lang bakit ka nilikha bilang ikaw. Dahil lahat tayo ay may misyon sa ating buhay, inilagay ka lang sa ganyang pangangatawan dahil diyan mo magagampanan ang misyon mo sa mundo,” says the youth leader who states further that, “Hindi masama ang magmahal ng kapwa mo lalaki o babae. Ang masama ay habang nag mamahalan kayo ay may natatapakan kayong kapwa ninyo.”

But both Hontiveros and Dulay, despite of their differences on the SOGIE issue, are against any form of discrimination and they want the best for their constituents. They want to preserve values and the Filipino family through their respective official capacity at present…

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(Photo: Jasper H. Francisco)