Friends in L.A.

LOS ANGELES — We’re finally coming home.

It was close to three weeks ago when Solar Sports producer Erick Tam, broadcaster Vitto Lazatin and I left Manila to cover the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals on site for live satellite transmission.

This was our first stop as Games 1and 2 were played at the Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers. Then, we traveled to Detroit where the Pistons hosted Games 3, 4 and 5 at the Palace in Auburn Hills.

A Game 6 would’ve been played at the Staples but the Pistons made sure the Lakers didn’t get the chance to host back. Detroit wrapped up the best-of-7 series in five.

Our return booking assumed a Game 7 (which would’ve been played last Sunday) and was scheduled on Wednesday afternoon (tomorrow, Manila time). It was the earliest available flight to accommodate us.

When the Pistons clinched in Game 5 last Tuesday, we immediately tried to rebook our flight. We left Detroit and arrived here last Wednesday afternoon. Our Solar Sports angel Hope Magora, who is executive vice president Peter Chan Liong’s secretary, arranged to rebook our flight to leave two days earlier on Monday to arrive Tuesday night (yesterday) in Manila. There were no openings from Thursday to Sunday. Northwest was booked solid on those days.

On our return trip here, close friend Roy Gonzales billeted us at the Renaissance Hotel near the airport and used his personal discount for us to pay only $149 a night, plus taxes. We stayed in two rooms. After two nights, Roy moved us to the Marriott Hotel at Newport Beach where he used his frequent visitor points for our three-day, two-room stay.

It was difficult just waiting for the hours to pass until the day of our flight but Roy and our other L. A. friends made it a pleasant experience. To them go our heartfelt gratitude.

Roy, turning 36 next month, has a heart of gold. He played four years of varsity basketball at the University of Iloilo and remembers going up against Adamson University, starring Marlou Aquino and then-benchwarmer Kenneth Duremdes, in an intercollegiate tournament years ago. Roy, a two-guard who once scored 32 points for the Iloilo varsity on slashing drives to the hoop, also played against Boyet Fernandez in an inter-school competition in Bacolod. Both Roy and Fernandez took up nursing in college.

The youngest of three children, Roy went to Manila in 1990 to seek his fortune with only P500 in his pocket. He worked as a male nurse at the Makati Medical Center and gained a reputation for his work ethic, sincerity and attitude. In 1992, he was recruited by three hospitals to work in the US after passing a commission test for nursing. Roy chose Rush Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago over Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles and New York University Hospital.

After working three months at Rush, Roy found out his late father’s friend Dr. Julian Archie was the hospital’s director of obstetrics and gynecology. Roy paid Dr. Archie a visit in his hospital office to introduce himself and was shocked to see a picture of his parents on his desk. Dr. Archie, who is a widower and childless, eventually "adopted" Roy as a son.

Today, Roy is the vice president of patient health care services at Lincoln Park Hospital in Chicago and the Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center in Newport Beach, a Los Angeles suburb. Both hospitals are owned by the Tenet Group which controls over 150 hospitals in the US. Roy spends half the month in Chicago–where he owns a newly-built townhouse–and the other half in Newport Beach–where he lives in a Villa Siena apartment.

In two months, Roy will receive his doctorate’s degree in business, specializing in health care administration, from the University of Pennsylvania. He recently passed the oral exams, the final hurdle in his pursuit of a doctorate. Roy, who got his US green card in 1998, earned his master’s degree at Rush.

Roy is a basketball nut who has played a pair of pick-up games with Michael Jordan in an exclusive sports club in Chicago. His good friends in Manila include Hector Calma, Jolly Escobar and George Gallent–all Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) veterans. When he comes home to visit, Roy often organizes a basketball tournament in the B. F. village where he used to live. He also pays for the schooling of several relatives.

Roy’s mother Nelida, a widow, is 63 and lives in Iloilo with her daughter Gina, 38, and son Ruperto, 37. Roy is coming home in two weeks to celebrate his 36th birthday and take his mother to Bangkok for a vacation.

Roy looked after us from Day 1, driving long miles in his BMW M-3 car (which he once raced with Karl Malone’s Mercedes SL600 on a lonely Newport Beach road) to take us to places we would never have been able to go to otherwise. He’s a true friend.

Another "buddy" Jannelle So, the popular PBA courtside reporter on TV, made our visit "So" pleasant. Jannelle is finishing a nine-month course in print and broadcast journalism at UCLA and hosts "So L. A.," a two-hour daily program on Filipinas.tv. The internet program–accessible on DSL or cable–features such segments as the chat-talk "So to Speak" "Student Frame" "Social Calls" and "News and Views."

Jannelle’s director is Efren Pinon who has filmed a slew of Filipino movies, including action flicks starring Fernando Poe, Jr. Pinon’s wife is former PBA cager Johnedel Cardel’s sister. Helping out Pinon in the show is actor Fred Galang’s son Ferdie. The program is produced by Papal awardee for public service Manny Calpito who started out in 1968 as a DZRH announcer. Among Jannelle’s recent guests on "So L.A." were actress Gina Alajar, martial artist George Dylan and Batangas provincial board member Mark Leviste.

Jannelle, 26, plans to enroll in a UCLA summer course on sports broadcasting and perhaps, return to Manila in time for the PBA’s next season opening in October. She has hosted several Filipino events, like beauty contests and community affairs, in the L. A. area.

Jannelle’s family lives in Carson City near here. Her father Willy and mother Lenny own a six-bed, care-giving facility, Diamond Villa, in Torrance. Her brother Lawrence, 23, graduated with a finance degree at the University of Southern California and works for a health care company. Her sister Christine, 21, is taking up accounting at USC. The youngest in the family, Melvin, 9, is entering Grade 5 at the Bonita elementary school.

The Sos migrated to the US in 1999.

Last Sunday, we went to Mass at the St. Philomena Church in Carson City with the So family. Filipinos comprised about 95 percent of those who attended the Father’s Day Mass. Then, the So family treated us to a sumptuous dimsum lunch at a Chinese restaurant.

Nina Castillejo-Theras and her husband Steve also showed us L.A. hospitality. They treated us to lunch at the Marina del Rey yacht club and introduced us to Hungarian Olympic tennis player Daniel Somogyi. Nina, who played tennis at Wimbledon and the US Open in the late 1980s, is TV sportscaster Dyan Castillejo-Garcia’s younger sister. Her husband is a successful tax accountant and consultant.

Last Friday, Nina and Steve took us to the Wild Card Gym where Manny Pacquiao trains. We met Freddie Roach’s brother Pepper and trainers Justin Fortune and Macka Foley in the gym.

We owe a lot to Roy, Jannelle and her family and Nina and Steve for their kind hospitality. We wouldn’t have survived five idle days in L.A. without them.