Cebu honors SEA Games organizer

The Sportswriters Association of Cebu (SAC) named the chairman of the provincial organizing committee for the recent Southeast Asian (SEA) Games as its Sportsman of the Year in the 24th All-Cebu Sports Awards at the Rajah Park Hotel in Cebu City last Monday.

Jonathan Guardo, former chairman of the Cebu City Sports Commission, received the honor for overseeing the province’s hosting of key SEA Games events last December. What Peter Ueberroth was to Los Angeles at the 1984 Olympics, Guardo was to Cebu at the last SEA Games.

Smiling from ear to ear, Guardo went up the stage to receive his plaque of recognition from SAC president Ric Gabuya of the Cebu Daily News. Guardo, head of Osaka Iridology, thanked the media for its support, former Philippine Olympic Committee president Celso Dayrit, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, the city governments of Mandaue and Danao and even Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña—his political opponent—in his acceptance remarks.

It wasn’t the first Sportsman of the Year award for Guardo. He was also cited in 2002.

Boxing promoter Sammy Gello-ani, fondly called Don King, won the award last year. Before Sammy, Edward Hayco of dancesport was honored twice in a row. Businessman and boxing promoter Tony Aldeguer has received the award thrice and is now a Hall of Famer.

Paying tribute to a non-athlete for his or her contributions to sports in a regular category, not as an exception to the rule, of the All-Cebu Sports Awards is a laudable tradition and the SAC deserves to be commended for the novel idea.

Departing from usual practice, the SAC pulled a surprise in not choosing a single boxer or basketball player as an awardee. It was a surprise considering the popularity of boxing and basketball in the province. Randy Suico, Rodel Mayol and Dondon Hontiveros will just have to do much better this year to deserve an award.

Another surprise was the selection of 14 SEA Games gold medalists as Athletes of the Year. It’s not often you see so many athletes sharing the coveted top award but the SAC wisely chose to honor Cebu’s homegrown talents without playing favorites.

One by one, the stars received their plaques. Manuel and Darius Bacarisas, Jasper Cabrera, Ben Maravilles, Roger Roxas and Florante Acuna were cited for playing on the softball squad that struck paydirt at the SEA Games. Michael Mendoza was honored for his gold medal in the Latin category of dancesport. Ruel Empacis was named for playing on the baseball team that took gold. Sports climber Cresencio Vidal, Jr., 4x400 relay master Julius Nierras, swimmer-turned-diver Andrea Marie Rafanan, 14-year-old diver Kelvin Kong, first-ever Filipino pencak silat gold medalist Marniel Dimia and mountain biker Baby Maritess Bitbit rounded up the elite cast.

SAC co-founder and indefatigable sports columnist Maning Oyson, Jr. was given a posthumous award. A dear friend, Maning passed away recently. He was a pillar of the sportswriting community, not just in Cebu but in the entire country.

Website creator Dong Secuya, dressed to the nines as if in Las Vegas to attend a Manny Pacquiao main event, received a well-deserved plaque as the Orlacsan awardee. The award is named in honor of the late Sun Star sports editor Orlando Sanchez. Dong created the popular mannypacquiao.ph website, called Pacland, and the PhilBoxing.com website. Both websites enjoy thousands of world-wide hits everyday.

Dong’s labor of love is a testament to his professionalism and dedication.

Japanese expatriate Harou Iwanaga was the Presidential Awardee for his selfless support of Cebu football.

The other major awardees were Clifford John Bonjoc and Irin Banluran of athletics, Maritess Natad and Florian Gutierrez of beach volleyball, Dearlie Gerodias and Errole Melencio of dancesport, Noel Espinosa of karatedo, Jacob Lagman and Sally Mae Siso of tennis, Niño Surban of montain biking, John Eleazar Adlawan of motocross, paralympian Arnold Balais of swimming, Metodio Suico and Harrison Castanares of sepak takraw, Lhoriz Echavez and Dianne Caneda of swimming, Gerry Calinawan of triathlon and Reynante Briones of weightlifting.

Special citations were given to Team Alta Vista (Carl Almario, Ramoncito Garcia, Joseph Stevens) and Team Cebu Country Club (Almario, Nonoy Tirol, Jovy Neri) for golf, paralympian Noel Gonzales of swimming, Gloria Belandres of table tennis, Reynante de la Cerna and the University of the Visayas high school and college teams for scrabble, Judith Sulla of weightlifting, Bernardine Niño Siso and John Francis Largo of tennis, Team Cebu City of dancesport, the University of Cebu men’s team (Michael and Emmanuel Motel, Glendo Nayre, Jay Impresio) of table tennis and Barlo Nadera of chess.

John Pages, whose uncle Rey used to play basketball for Crispa and now lives in Los Baños, did a superb job as master of ceremonies of the program that went like clockwork. Organizers of similar events could learn a lot from the SAC.

I attended the rites as the guest speaker. I shared my experiences as a sportswriter and spoke about athletes and media working together for the development of sports. I discussed the responsibilities of athletes and media to the public and to each other and warned of excesses. After the program, I sat down with several sportswriters to exchange ideas and stories, over several cups of coffee.

I was surprised to find out that SAC press relations officer Caecent No-ot of the Freeman is former St. Benilde cager Mark Magsumbol’s fiancee. Magsumbol played for the San Jose Skyrockets in the American Basketball Association last season and is still in the US trying out for a team in the International Basketball League although he has already submitted his application for the coming Philippine Basketball Association draft.

I had a wonderful time conversing with Ric, Jobannie Tabada, Gabby Malagar, Manny Villaruel, Raffy Uytiepo, my good pal Salven Lagumbay and the other SAC members during my brief visit to Cebu.

Many thanks to the SAC for the invitation, the plaque of appreciation and the handsome Cebu guitar and to Girlie Garces of San Miguel Corp. for the hospitality and care. Thanks, too, to San Miguel’s Emilie Gatmaitan and Ruben, the focused driver who made sure I got to the airport in time for boarding.