Why deny McTavish?

Three years ago, House Bill No. 1445 was filed by Rep. Carmelo Lazatin of the first district of Pampanga for the naturalization of New Zealand-born Bruce McTavish, an Angeles City resident since 1967. The co-authors were Reps. Niel Tupas, Jr. and Roilo Golez.

To this day, the House Bill has not been ratified and McTavish is wondering what it will take for him to finally be declared a Filipino. It took only a few months for basketball player Marcus Douthit to obtain Congress approval for his naturalization. McTavish has waited three years for his citizenship and is clueless as to when he will take his oath of allegiance.

McTavish’s naturalization is long overdue. He’s been married to Carmen Tayag for 35 years with two daughters Jean, 34, and Michele, 32. Jean is married to triathlete Michael Angelo Mandap with three children Aisha, 10, Matteo, 5 and Tua, six months. Carmen’s father was the late brilliant lawyer Renato (Katoks) Tayag and a brother is the culinary genius Claude. McTavish’s first job in the country was with Chrysler Corp. as general manager at the Clark Field Office. He has since become a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist in Angeles City. In sports, McTavish is well-known as a boxing referee with over 150 world title fights to his credit.

McTavish, 72, has lived the best years of his life in the country with absolutely no regrets. He has embraced the Philippines like a native-born Filipino and that’s why he has applied for naturalization. McTavish has given much honor to the country not only as an internationally recognized boxing referee but also as an advocate of social causes. During his watch as president of the Rotary Club of Mabalacat, he introduced the world’s first Polio Plus Project. He’s also in the history books as the first non-Filipino director of the Metro Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the first non-Filipino president of the St. James Cursillo, the first non-Filipino president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Pampanga and the first non-Filipino president of the Rotary Clubs of Mabalacat and Clark Centennial.

McTavish is particularly proud of his projects for streetchildren, providing scholarships for their education and opportunities to play competitive sports. He has been involved in promoting rugby league and Pony baseball competitions for kids as his way of using sports to keep kids out of drugs, trouble and mischief.

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In boxing conventions all over the globe, McTavish is often called on to lecture on officiating. His expertise is the reason why he’s among a select few invited to work fights sanctioned by rival world boxing bodies. Last year, McTavish refused to start a fight until the Games and Amusements Board produced an oxygen facility in case of an emergency during a card in Caloocan City. His uncompromising position has now made it mandatory for oxygen to be on standby for every fight in the country.

In the book “Third Man In The Ring” by Mike Fitzgerald and Patrick Morley (Potomac Books, Virginia, 2013), an entire chapter was devoted to McTavish. The book tracks the history of 33 outstanding boxing referees. McTavish’s chapter was nine pages long compared to only four in Kenny Bayless’ chapter.  Curiously, some passages in the chapter are quite similar to what were written in a column by good friend Rick Olivares about McTavish in the Business Mirror. There was no acknowledgement of Olivares although some quotes in the chapter were attributed to another friend Ted Lerner, an American living in the country.

Devoting one chapter in the book to McTavish was quite a tribute considering the other referees written about included popular names like Filipino Carlos (Sonny) Padilla, Richard Steele, Tony Weeks, Vic Drakulich, Robert Byrd, Pat Russell, Benjy Esteves and Mills Lane. Joe Cortez, Laurence Cole and Jay Nady were conspicuously missing from the cast.

McTavish said the book had a few errors. The authors said he played on the New Zealand national basketball team that toured the Philippines in 1959 and was a professional rugby player. “I was on the team but didn’t come,” said McTavish. But by and large, the book painted an accurate picture of McTavish’s history.

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“Few referees have experienced as many unique situations as Bruce over the last 30 years, both in and out of the ring,” wrote Fitzgerald and Morley. “He has worked many high-profile international title bouts including several involving Manny Pacquiao. McTavish has refereed fights in Siberia, North Korea and China. He once had a gun held to his head by a cornerman upset because he thought McTavish acted hastily in stopping a bout.”

McTavish’s activities in social causes were given due notice by the authors. “Outside the ring, one of McTavish’s passions is community involvement,” they said. “An active Rotarian for 30 years, he has served as president of the local Rotary chapter and has spearheaded the effort to raise funds to see to the needs of more than 40 young orphans. He is also active in the campaign to provide polo vaccinations for thousands of impoverished children. In 2003, when former Philippine bantamweight champion Alvin Felisilda required two brain surgeries after being knocked out in a fight in Japan, McTavish and others in the boxing community got together to raise money for medical and rehabilitation expenses. McTavish personally delivered the donations to Felisilda’s hometown.”

Surely, there is merit to McTavish’s application to become a naturalized Filipino citizen. His dream is to someday be introduced in the ring as “Bruce McTavish of the Philippines” before a fight. As a local resident for 46 years, McTavish has no doubt earned the right to be called a Pinoy.