PANABO CITY – Phoenix Petroleum is on its third year of sponsoring the PBA’s out-of-town games and recently agreed to extend its support for another three years. PBA media bureau chief and special assistant to the commissioner Willie Marcial described the partnership as mutually beneficial.
“Phoenix is very happy with the media mileage that is created out of sponsoring the PBA on tour,” said Marcial last weekend. “They’re our presentor. When the PBA goes out of town, Phoenix is automatically mentioned as our major sponsor in newspapers, radio, TV, the Internet and streamers. It has definitely been a boost to their marketing efforts.”
Phoenix Petroleum was launched in Davao City four years ago and now has 150 gasoline stations nationwide, 31 in Luzon, 117 in Mindanao and two in the Visayas. The growth spurt is credited to 36-year-old Dennis Uy, the company’s president and CEO.
“The media exposure we get from the PBA has a lot of impact,” said Phoenix corporate affairs and facilities manager Vis-Min Beethoven Sur. “Mr. Uy has a passion for sports so he understands the value of being a PBA partner. He is a golfer, a triathlete, shooter and basketball player.”
Three years ago, Sur said Phoenix got the contract to be Cebu Pacific’s exclusive service provider for aviation fuel.
“We’re growing very fast,” said Sur. “Mr. Uy’s vision is expansion. We now have oil depots in Kalibo, Davao, Zamboanga City and Calaca, Batangas. Our Calaca depot is our biggest with a capacity of 50 million liters to service Luzon. We plan to increase the capacity by 10 to 20 million liters more. We are also putting up depots in Cagayan de Oro, General Santos City, Iloilo and Bacolod.”
Sur said Uy has also extended his support to Davao City’s Steve (The Red Knight) Grandeza who won the World K-1 Kickboxing Federation superwelterweight champion in Dubai last month.
And no less than the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Manny Pacquiao is a Phoenix endorser and business partner. Another Phoenix endorser is actress Marian Rivera.
Clearly, Phoenix’ positive image is built around sports.
“Manny isn’t just our endorser but as a business partner, he has his own Phoenix gasoline station in General Santos City,” said Sur. “Then, Mr. Uy supports Grandeza and we just signed a three-year renewal to sponsor the PBA on tour. We feel the success of Phoenix is tied in with our support for sports.”
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A Davao Sports Hall of Fame will be launched in Davao City on Dec. 7 and the first inductees will be basketball players. Retired regional trial court judge and former Basketball Association of the Philippines regional director Jaime Quitain, a Mindanao Times sports columnist, is spearheading the project.
Expected to lead the enshrinees are the late Davao Oriental Gov. Francisco (Pacquing) Rabat, known as Ateneo’s “Rajah of Rebound” who played on the Philippines’ bronze medal team at the 1954 World Championships, 1956 Olympian Boni Carbonnel and former PBA cager Alvin Teng (1986-98, 2002). Other Davao natives who played in the PBA include Adriano (Dong) Polistico (1988-97) and Jomer Rubi (1999-2000).
Today, Davao is represented in the PBA by B-Meg’s Peter June Simon and Powerade’s R. J. Rizada. Simon was born in Cotabato but made a name for himself as a basketball star at the University of Mindanao in Davao City and played for the Davao Eagles in the Metropolitan Basketball Association before crossing over to the PBL and eventually, the PBA. Rizada suited up for Ateneo de Davao then FEU and was Coca-Cola’s second round pick in the 2006 PBA draft. He was in Panabo City last weekend to play for Powerade against San Miguel Beer. Rizada’s sister Resa Angeli, a summa cum laude nursing graduate of San Pedro College in Davao City, won as Mutya Ng Dabaw last year and is now taking up law at Ateneo.
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The teams that saw action here last weekend stayed in different hotels in Davao City which is a leisurely 45-minute drive away from Panabo. San Miguel Beer checked in at the Gaisanos’ Grand Regal Hotel while Powerade was billeted at the Waterfront Hotel, formerly Davao Insular. The referees were at the Microtel Suites and PBA staff at the Marco Polo Hotel.
Mayor Jose Silvosa Sr. hosted a sumptuous dinner for the PBA visitors at the City Hall after the game. The buffet feast included 10 lechons and loads of tuna panga and belly.
According to a city official, a PBA coach has politely declined to attend a post-game reception in two outings he has lost in Panabo. “I think he was in no mood to have dinner with the other team that won and hurriedly left in the bus to go back to Davao City,” said the official. “When the team got back to their hotel, it was quite late so the players ended up eating only in places that are open 24 hours, like McDonald’s.”