Alaska pays it forward

A very touching ceremony launched the Wilfred Uytengsu, Sr. Sports Medicine Center at the St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City Thursday afternoon. The simple ribbon-cutting organized by the Alaska Milk Corporation recalled the life of a tough, uncompromising businessman – chairman of Alaska Milk Corporation – whose vision continues to give to Filipino sports lovers even after his passing on. Now, there is a concrete facility dedicated to his memory.

Uytengsu was an engineer who held two degrees, an industrial engineering degree from Stanford and chemical engineering degree from Indiana Tech. He completed both degrees in just four years. He was part of a group of Filipino-Chinese businessmen who started General Milling Corporation in the 1950’s. It eventually diversified until its leading product, Alaska Milk, was spun off into a separate corporation. The company has supported basketball and other sports for the youth, like soccer for over two decades now. It was the elder Uytengsu’s idea to enter the PBA at the conclusion of Martial Law.

Uytengsu also made generous donations of equipment and facilities to universities, affirming his belief in the youth of the country. He was an early advocate of corporate social responsibility, and has helped generations of students and youth who would otherwise have been deprived of the benefits of a good education.

Uytengsu, whose son Fred is now CEO of the company and owner of the 13-time PBA champion Alaska Aces, will be immortalized through the state-of-the-art fitness and rehab equipment filling the center adjoining the weight management unit on the hospital’s sixth floor.

Life Fitness Cycles, treadmills line the walls of the center, along with free weights and the latest exercise gear.

“More than the best equipment in this medical center, what impressed my father the most was the care given to its patients,” says Fred, whose father passed away on April 18, 2010.

Younger readers may not remember, but Fred was a talented national swimmer, having spent 13 years in the sport from his grade school days until he studied in California in the 1980’s. He became a competitive triathlete in the 1990’s, and still competes. Fred also introduced many innovations into how basketball is practiced in the country. One of the first changes Alaska Milk made when entering the PBA in 1986 was to have their own team physician, a practice then unheard of in the PBA. The corporate medical officer Dr. Facundo Sun became the league’s first team physician. Sun was formally connected with the team for 20 years.

“We are happy that we now have the perfect corporate partner for our sports medicine center,” said Robert Kuan, chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Luke’s Medical Center, in his opening remarks Thursday.

Kuan also made mention of the diversity of the hospital, even in the emergency rooms, which are divided among different kinds of specializations, depending on the type of emergency. There is a separate facility for pediatric cases, adults and critical care, the first time that a major hospital has specialized in that manner in the Philippines.

The entire board of St. Luke’s was there, among them senior vice-president for medical affairs and chief medical officer Dr. Joven Cuanang, and director of the Institute for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Dr Jose Raul Canlas, who has saved the careers of countless PBA players and national athletes. The reigning Fiesta Conference champion Aces, celebrating their 25th anniversary in the PBA, were in complete attendance, including head coach Tim Cone and team manager Joaqui Trillo.

“The Sports Medicine Center is fully equipped with state-of-the-art gadgets that are comparable to sports centers in the United States and other countries,” says Canlas, who is on the medical board of FIBA and the International Olympic Committee.

“I’ve been under the knife with Dr. Canlas a couple of times, and I can tell you he really takes care of his patients,” revealed Uytengsu.

Alaska also started the trend of retiring jersey numbers in the PBA.

The first jersey they retired was two-time Most Valuable Player Bogs Adornado’s back in the late 1980’s. They also began handing out championship rings when they won their first PBA championship in 1991.

Now, in honoring its founding chairman, Alaska has made sure that his gifts of selflessness will continue giving long after he has gone. The gifts of hope of recovery and health are gifts we can only wish everyone would have, always.