The winning threesome

It was a gargantuan task to stage the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the country this year. Speaker Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano took a huge political risk in putting his neck on the line when he agreed to head PHISGOC as chairman. He made himself accountable for the whole shebang but because of his love for sports and country, made the bold step forward in showing the way to bring the SEA Games back to the Philippines after 14 years.

There were some snags in the preparation stage. The POC leadership changed hands from Ricky Vargas to Rep. Abraham (Bambol) Tolentino as president while PSC chairman Butch Ramirez consented to become the Philippines’ chef de mission only last May. Ramirez initially declined the position out of “delicadeza” to replace Monsour del Rosario but faced the challenge when Malacañang gave its go-signal to take on the job. Because he heads the government agency that finances the advancement of sports, Ramirez was the right man for it. He was also the country’s chef de mission when the Philippines hosted the SEA Games in 2005 and is now in the record books as the only Filipino chef de mission with two overall championships in his resume.

The triumvirate of Cayetano, Ramirez and Tolentino worked beautiful music in orchestrating the Philippines’ success in the field of competition and as the SEA Games host. Tolentino was the architect of the master plan that moved the Philippines from sixth place in the last two SEA Games to first this year. Ramirez held the purse strings that unlocked the money chest to provide support for the country’s athletes to train overseas and gain valuable experience and confidence to excel. Cayetano provided the organization that held everything in place. The logistical challenge of staging 56 sports, the most ever in SEA Games history, and hosting 8,544 athletes from 11 countries was daunting but Cayetano never wavered from assuring an event that every Filipino could be proud of.

Now that the SEA Games are over, the Philippines will take on the bigger challenge of proving that winning the overalll championship was no fluke. Vietnam will host the next Games in 2021 then Cambodia in 2023 and Thailand in 2025. Vietnam came in second with 98 golds this year and will surely prepare to claim the overall championship in 2021. Vietnam’s only overall championship came when it hosted the SEA Games in 2003.

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Today is the last day to submit entries to our annual Christmas Contest. Deadline time is 5 p.m. We’ll be giving away cash and products to 20 winners. If we’re able to collect more donations from benefactors and sponsors, we’ll pick 25 to 30 winners. So far, we’ve received P80,000 in cash – P50,000 from Chooks To Go (Bounty Agro Ventures president Ronald Mascarinas), P20,000 from businessman/sportsman Hermie Esguerra and P10,000 from tennis patron Rommie Chan. Blackwater, Alaska and Robinson’s Retail Holdings president Robina Gokongwei-Pe have sent in product prizes, too. More are expected within the next few days.

It’s easy to join. Three questions must be answered correctly – 1. Who were at least three NBA veterans in rosters of the PBA Governors Cup this season? 2. Who was the last Filipino boxer to win an Olympic medal and in what year? 3. What were the years when the Philippines hosted the SEA Games including this year? Additionally, each contest must submit a short essay of not more than three sentences on “The Significance of Hosting the SEA Games.”

Each entry musts contain the sender’s name, age, address, occupation (if student, year, course and school), cellphone number and email address. An entry that fails to note down those details will be disqualified. Entries may be sent by email to [email protected], Twitter to @TheDeanQuinito, Facebook to @Joaquin Henson, Instagram to @therealdeanquinito and to The Philippine Star sports section, Port Area, Manila. Winners will be announced on Sunday, Dec. 15, in this column. We’ll award the prizes to each winner on Sunday, Dec. 22, at 10 a.m. outside Starbucks in Molito Alabang.