PWDs win gold in HK Dragon Boat Carnival

A year ago, on June 5, 2017 a totally unheard of Person with Disabilities (PWDs) group that calls themselves the Philippine Accessibility Disability Services Inc. (PADS) from Cebu quietly practiced to join the first ever international race via the famous Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival at the Victoria Harbour called the Para-dragon Boat Race. Arnold Balais, a well-rounded athlete, led the team and he brought PADS to wear the Philippine colors in the Para-dragon category and they fought four teams from Hong Kong, one from the United Kingdom and one from Singapore. They were composed of 14 male and four female plus the drummer and steersman for a total of 20 members that have various disabilities, blind, deaf or amputees and other disabilities. This group is led by JP Ecarma Maunes.

In the first heat of that race last year, the differently abled Cebuano paddlers lost to an HK team by just 25 milliseconds. This encouraged the team to do more and in the finals they won their race decisively, winning by seven seconds to claim their breakthrough gold medal. That was last year’s race with very little news from Philippine media, which is supposed to be in the hunt for gold winners in sporting activities. Perhaps media’s problem is that they focus too much on seeking gold, silver or bronze in the Asian Games or even the Olympics where achieving a gold trophy for Filipinos is nothing but a pipe dream.

As I was writing this piece, I got a text message from my MyTV cameraman Joel Noel who informed me that the PADS Dragon Boat Team won again last Sunday as gold medalist for the 2nd time of the Para-dragon Category of the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Carnival. I wanted a word from the PADs team, especially JP Ecarma Maunes, but I was told that they were in the fellowship dinner that evening to get their gold trophy… so I will just have to wait for them to return to Cebu to interview them.

Less than two months ago, I finalized with PADS that the International Marketing Group (IMG), Kaiser Healthgroup, MB Life and MyTV channel 30 in Cebu would be their major sponsors because they are the defending champions of this prestigious race. Call it timely that two weeks ago, IMG just held their “Convention of Champions” at the SMX. Now they have lent their full support to not just a gold winner in a local race, but also an international Dragon Boat Race in Hong Kong. What a prestigious event!

Mind you, PADS had a difficult time getting a sponsor because the race was not in the Philippines, even despite their being champions of the Paradragon Category. However, last year the Province of Cebu and the City of Cebu Councilor Eugenio Gabuya came out to support the group by buying them a Dragon Boat. I understand that Alaxan was also a sponsor of the team, so I’m sure that Alaxan would publicize their winning the Paradragon Category through their media support.

All told, we are proud to announce that the PADS Adaptive Dragon Boat Racing Team once again won the 400-meter race of the Standard Boat International Paradragon Championship in the 2018 China Construction Bank (Asia) in the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races held at Pier 10 of the Central Harbour in Hong Kong Island. This time, the PADS Racing Team topped both the first and second heats of the race to emerge as champions in the category that they also won last year.

PADS clocked a total of one minute and 35 seconds in the first heat and 1:33.913 in the second heat to grab the gold. Hong Kong’s Golden Eagle placed second to PADS while the NAAC Top Brilliances Dragon Boat Team of Taiwan settled for 3rd place. Mind you, not even Pres. Rodrigo Duterte came out of his way to congratulate this Cebuano speaking PWD sportsmen who won gold again. Perhaps I should inform Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino to inform Malacañang that we have Filipinos who won a gold trophy in a world famous international race last weekend.

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Did Pres. Rodrigo Duterte call God stupid? Mind you, this is not the first time that Pres. Digong has blasphemed God. He is smart enough that when the time comes he would have to pay for the sins that he committed against God. But during our weekly Monday mass at the Cebu Country Club (CCC) with the Sons of David, we discussed the way Pres. Duterte has blasphemed God in so many ways. We literally debated on whether doing so is good or bad for the President.

At the end of our discussion, we were all united in our decision to pray for the President that hopefully, someday he too would convert to Christianity and become a living witness to God’s love for him and for the very country called the Philippines that he has professed to love so dearly.

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