Championing the spirit of sports and entrepreneurship

As a child, my favorite sport was basketball.  I would spend everyday at the basketball court near our house. I would skip our family trips abroad just to stay during summer to play in our inter-village basketball leagues. From a child’s ambition to be Batman, I shifted my interest to be a basketball superstar one day. But that never happened. Instead, I headed the Philippine basketball amateur league for about eight years and at a later point decided to put up a professional team in the PBA for about 12 years, winning four championships. There were years we also had Coach Chot Reyes and Norman Black. 

But through the years, my vision was to see the Philippines build its presence in the international scene. We had a few successes, but at that time the problem was basketball was not united, and the PBL and PBA were doing their own things. Basketball was lucky to bring in Manny Pangilinan who was able to unite the entire group through Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas (SBP), with one vision to put the Philippines back in the international scene and regain its dominance in Asia and eventually the world.

MVP and the rest of the group deserve all the praise and congratulations as this effort requires the passion and teamwork of each leadership, especially of the PBA to sacrifice self-interest for the country. Getting the Philippines to host the FIBA is an achievement in itself, but more so to win 2nd place and qualify for the world basketball is a dream come true.

It is a dream that came true also for me to make many Filipinos who love basketball happy again and cheering for the national team. Again it shows how the passion, perseverance and optimism, which an entrepreneur needs to have, can carry forward into the field of sports.

Congratulations to MVP and the SBP, and of course the players and coaching staff headed by Coach Chot Reyes. 

To Team Gilas, we are glad that you brought back the glory in basketball as you carry the Philippine flag to the World Cup 2014 in Spain. We wish you all the best.

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(From left): Gabriel Cui, Ramon Lopez, Eric Alberto, myself, and Kat Luna-Abelarde during the MOU signing between Go Negosyo and PLDT last Aug.t 8 at the Manila Polo Club.

Speaking of MVP, it has been six years and it is still our pride in Go Negosyo that we are keeping the partnership with the one of the biggest and successful companies here in the country, the PLDT group, who shares our vision to build an entrepreneurial nation. 

PLDT SME Nation is committed in helping Filipino entrepreneurs grow from small to big enterprises by harnessing the latest technology to connect small and medium sized businesses to their suppliers, customers and global counterpart.

Being on the same page of helping Filipino negosyantes, we renewed our partnership the last Aug. 8 at the Manila Polo Club. I am always glad that PLDT with MVP and its whole team supports our Go Negosyo advocacy.

During the MOU signing attended by PLDT executive vice president and head Enterprise and International Business Eric Alberto, VP & head PLDT SME Nation Kat Luna-Abelarde, SME Community Consultancy head Gabby Cui, we had a very productive time discussing our current programs and projects to help the SME sector.

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Our Go Negosyo team will have the Visayas run of Youth Entrepreneurship Summit 2013 at the Central Philippine University, Iloilo City on September 4. We are inviting everyone to join us in this event.

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Contact me at [email protected].