A father, known deeply

How far would you go to get to know a loved one? What would you do in memory of someone dear to you? More so, how would you place that beloved in the context of history? How would you feel if you found out that a member of your family did amazing things of such a large scale that you never knew?

This was the experience of Ching de las Alas Montinola and her sister, Menchu de las Alas. Their father, lawyer, public servant and author of great deeds Antonio de las Alas, died of pneumonia in Chicago in 1983. But it was only after that that they realized that their father, though small of stature, cast a truly large shadow over every landscape he was in. They thought it was already an achievement that he was always looking out for a rather large brood of 14 children.

“This book is about two of us and how we found hope in the ‘other life’ our father lived outside our home,” says Ching, who herself is known for her gentility in public service. “His life in exceptional public service unfolded before us over the years. We always look for great men to inspire us, and Papa did. But we never realized the true measure of his greatness.”

Of course, there were early signs that Antonio de las Alas was destined – perhaps even designed – for greatness. He finished grade school in three years, then attended Batangas National High School for one year before taking the “Pensionado Exam” for US scholarships. At a mere 15 years of age, he passed, and was shipped to Indiana University.

Once there, he was admitted on probation because he had not completed high school. He promptly topped the class and was allowed to enroll as a regular student.

This is where de las Alas started to shine in sports. In 1908, he was a sprinter at Indiana University, and became school featherweight boxing champion, a difficult feat, to say the least. The achievement becomes grander when you learn that he also obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree that year. The following year, he achieved his Master of Laws LL.M, Cum Laude from Yale University. In 1911, The Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF), the precursor of today’s Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (PATAFA), was created.

This would serve as de las Alas’s setting for more enduring feats in Philippine sports history, though that was still far off at the time.

In 1913, de las Alas was only one of 19 who passed the bar exam in the Philippines, one of 19 of the 189 who became full-fledged lawyers. The law became a springboard for public service, as the young lawyer became congressman representing the first district of Batangas from 1922 to 1933. At the end of his last term, he became his district’s representative to the Constitutional Convention. Months later, he was voted vice-president of the PAAF, a post he held until 1955.

In between all of this, he also panned and started construction of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, and inaugurated the facility in 1934.

In the midst of extraordinary achievements in government, he was also a pillar of the nation’s infant sports programs. In 1955, he became president of PAAF, and was afterwards nominated to head the Philippine delegations to the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, and the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. It was during that time that he was unanimously elected the first president of the Philippine Olympic Committee. At the same time, he became founder, president and chairman of the Philippine Cycling Association, and is credited with founding the Tour of Luzon. In 1960, he also led the country’s athletes to the Rome Olympics.

The year after, de las Alas introduced table tennis and inaugurated the Sta. Ana racetrack. The respect for his authority and leadership soon spread internationally. He was elected a member of the Asian Games Federation. Soon, however, his involvement in sports was ended by political intervention of then-President Ferdinand Marcos.

All these magnificent things, his children only learned years after his death, and it took them well over two decades to piece together the marvelous deeds their father did, and bring them to light. On Feb. 11, on what would have been Antonio de las Alas’s 120th birthday, his children will be launching a book on the life of “A Small Man with a Tall Shadow” at the Philippine Columbian Association. It will be accompanied by an exhibit of rare memorabilia.

It will be an uncommon revelation of an uncommon love of the children of a truly uncommon man.