Freedom and memories

The Philippines celebrated its 123rd Independence Day Saturday, in what is always a thought-provoking occasion. What is your definition of freedom? For many, it is being able to make your way through the world, unencumbered. For this writer, it is being able to do what I love and, at this point, choose whom I get to work with. And as I transition from being in front of the camera to creating more opportunities for others to do the same, an online interview with Vince Juico and Brian Yalung on “Sports For All” launched so many memories. You could say I forced ABS-CBN Sports into life back in the 1980’s. To this day, network newscast producers do not see fit to have sports news on a nightly basis, a travesty when you realize that some American sportscasts are on the air six times a day. That is a phenomenon I have always been fighting.

In 35 years of memories, how do you pick the handful that stand out? While digging through the virtual treasure chest in my mind, a few naturally popped up. Please indulge me while I refresh them.

July, 1988. Optimist Junior World Golf Championships, San Diego, California. This was perhaps the most serendipitous coverage of all. It wasn’t just about the event, or that I would be the first to bring video of the tournament back to the Philippines. I had grown up not looking, thinking or acting like a typical Filipino, and it always bothered me. This trip allowed me to meet my biological father John Schöen for the first time. He happened to live in San Diego, too. I traveled ahead of the Philippine delegation in an era with no Internet, no mobile phones, and no direct flights to the US mainland. After 25 hours of flying and over an hour of waiting at San Diego airport, at the age of 23 I finally saw and hugged my father, and found closure. Sadly, he disappeared again after 1989, and I last spoke to him on the phone after tracking him down again in 2012. He hung up on me.

November, 1991. 16th Southeast Asian Games, Manila, Philippines. This was one of the most exhausting, fulfilling, unforgettable events in my career, and it all happened at home. People’s Television had hired me as the producer for basketball, volleyball, tennis and bowling. Needless to say, we all did what we could to bring our athletes and the country honor. More than two weeks of sleepless nights, but many glorious moments. Eric Buhain and Akiko Thomson Guevara were hailed outstanding athletes of the Games; the country fell one gold medal short of first place overall. But what swelled my heart with pride was covering the gold medal game in men’s basketball. The country had been cheated soundly in several sports in 1989, and this was payback. To this day, I swear I have never heard the Araneta Coliseum that loud.

July, 1996. Centennial Park Bombing, Atlanta, Georgia. My first Olympics, and I nearly got killed. Midway through the Games, I begged my roommate and kumpare Ron delos Reyes to have one beer at the world’s largest celebration. Centennial Park was built in the open space between the Omni, CNN, Atlanta’s Convention Center, and the Georgia Dome, primarily for people who couldn’t get tickets to events. There were open-air performances round the clock. At past one in the morning, we were walking back to the International Broadcast Center when an explosion shook the ground. An African-American woman fell from shrapnel in her neck. Ron and I nodded at each other, then rushed headlong towards a small, smoking crater in the ground. We were intercepted by police who were quickly tossing people out of the park. It was only later when the magnitude of the event dawned on us, and Richard Jewell was crucified for something he did not do.

November, 2007. AIBA World Boxing Championships, Chicago, Illinois. Thanks to the kindness of Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Butch Ramirez, I was able to return to the city of my birth, witness Harry Tañamor qualify for the Beijing Olympics, and expose flaws in the way Philippine amateur boxing was being run back then. But it also launched a road trip wherein I proved a major point with the bosses at the network. In 12 days, entirely on my own, I filed stories from Chicago; Bowling Green Kentucky; Sacramento and Hayward, California; and Las Vegas, Nevada. Seven of those eight stories aired on TV Patrol while I was still in America. Moreover, I got several exclusives: the AIBA Worlds, the first interview with world champion David Diaz, the first video of Japeth Aguilar playing for Western Kentucky University, a two-camera sit-down interview with Francis Arnaiz, the first video of PBA player Eugene Tejada walking again. That had never been done in Philippine sports broadcasting before.

So many memories, so little space. Back to digging through the treasure chest.