Bangsamoro team beats PBA legends in historic game

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - What was planned only as a friendly basketball match to highlight the peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) turned into what local officials call a historic feat in the Mindanao peace process.

An interim 11-member team of living legends in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), led by playing coach Fortunato "Atoy" Co, lost to the provincial government’s “mixed tri-people” players 89-81 in a "solidarity game" Saturday night at the municipal gymnasium of Buluan in the second district of the province.

Hassan Aburamya of Moro-Kuwaiti descent and his ethnic Teduray teammate, Andy Amando, never thought they can defeat the PBA’s living legends that came to Buluan on the invitation of Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu. The governor said he wanted to show the national basketball icons how the province has been rising from devastation caused by armed conflicts in decades past.

The Maguindanao basketball team, originally named Maguindanao Youth for Peace, is composed of Moro, Christian and lumad players, backed by athletes from the MILF, the Philippine Army’s 601st Brigade and the Maguindanao provincial police office.

Aburamya and Amando, who are both in their early 20s, were among the Bangsamoro players that scored well as their team slugged it out with the PBA legends.

“I’m euphoric, absolutely euphoric. I can’t believe we defeated them,” Amando said.

Provincial board member Bobby Katambak said the historic basketball match should be written as an added chapter to the history of the Mindanao peace process which had recently achieved milestones- the signing in Malacañang last March 27 of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro by the government and the MILF, and the completion last week of the draft Basic Bangsamoro Law by the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, which is comprised of commissioners from both sides.

"We were overjoyed by our victory. This is a very historic feat," said Bangsamoro team player Naj'm Juanday, whose clan in Maguindanao's adjoining Kabuntalan and Northern Kabuntalan towns is identified with the MILF.

Co and members of his team, among them Kenneth Duremdes, Nelson Asaytono, Bonel Balingit, Marlou Aquino, Paul Alvarez, Val David, Rodney Hawkins, Zaldy Realubit and Jerry Codiñera, were accompanied to Buluan town by officials of South Cotabato province and Koronadal City, both in Administrative Region 12.

One of the public officials that escorted the visiting basketball legends was South Cotabato Board Member Agustin Dema-ala, a retired Army general who had served as commander of the 6th Infantry Division in Maguindanao during the area’s most troubled years from between 2004 to 2006.

Co said he was delighted to see how a team of culturally and spiritually diverse Moro, Christian and indigenous lumad athletes in Maguindanao exemplified teamwork and resilience that made them win in the solidarity match.

“We would not be coming over to play here if we doubted our very own safety in this part of Maguindanao. We know it is safe here and we will be protected by the governor,” Co said, referring to Mangudadatu, the only one from among the five provincial governors in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao who have been so outspoken of his support to the government-MILF peace efforts.

More than 5,000 people from across Maguindanao watched the game at the municipal gymnasium of Buluan, seat of the provincial government, and was a “no man’s land” at the height of the Moro rebellion in the 1970s.

A big number of the spectators that watched the Bangsamoro team and the PBA legends play even cheered for the latter, expecting them to win an easy, convenient victory.

“Ang sa amin lang naman sana `win or lose' eh maipapakita naming may kapayapaan na sa Maguindanao ngayon bilang resulta ng peace process. The victory of the Maguindanao tri-people basketball team is the victory of the province,” Mangudadatu said.

Mangudadatu said he is grateful to the coach of the Maguindanao team, the 29-year-old Henry Halid Rogong, who is of mixed Maranaw-Tagalog-Chinese ancestry.

Rogong said he is certain their solidarity game with the PBA veterans which they have won will create the impression that there are athletes in the Bangsamoro homeland that can also fare well with those in more advanced cities and provinces.

“This victory is a good showcase of how good our athletes here can be if only given a good break,” Rogong said.

An emotional Mangudadatu said what was so fascinating for him was that their team was comprised of children of MILF rebels, policemen, soldiers, and the reclusive tribal Tedurays in the adjoining North Upi and South Upi towns.

Co and Alvarez, in a press conference following the solidarity match, both called on Maguindanao’s basketball enthusiasts to practice well for them to excel.

“Kailangang mag-ensayo ng mabuti para lumaki ang kanilang mga katawan, para bumilis ang pag-takbo at para tumaas ang lundag. Ganun po ako noong bago pa lang akong naglalaro ng basketball,” Alvarez said.

Co said the teamwork and cooperation exemplified by members of the Maguindanao tri-people team was a proof that the Muslim, Christian and lumad communities in the province can peacefully co-exist and work together in addressing community issues and concerns as one big family.

“We can convert this kind of teamwork and cooperation into something very positive,” he said, adding that respect and trust among Maguindanao's Muslim, Christian and lumad folks are also needed to keep the peace in the province.