Azkals still
talk of the town

Truly, there’s nothing that can stop Bacolod folk from talking about the Azkals 2-0 win over the Mongolia football team. Not even the suicide of former Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes succeeded in displacing it from the front pages of local media. It still hogs the headlines.

Even President Benigno Aquino III extended to them the congratulations of the Filipino people for winning the first leg of their ore qualifier match against Mongolia in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup last Wednesday at the Panaad Stadium.

“I am grateful to you for bringing pride and honor to the Filipino the world over,” was Aquino’s personal tribute to the Azkal’s.

“You brought our people together, and reminded us once again that, united, we can reclaim our nation’s glory,” he added.

And he further said, “We look forward to cheering you on toward more triumphs.”

But that is not just what is happening. The more important is the Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri’s call on the president to direct the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to allocate 5 percent of its gross income and not its net income for sports.

“Allocating net and not gross earnings is illegal and unconstitutional,” Zubiri added.

In short, the Bukidnon-Negros senator stressed that, just by adhering to the law can more than buoy up the state of government support for sports.

Zubiri himself pledged to help the expansion of the Panaad Sports stadium in increasing its capacity to 40,000 from the current 20,000.

Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. reportedly said the provincial government already has a plan that will cost P100 to P150-million for the expansion project.

The international football community is willing to help if tapped, Zubiri added. Former Rep. Jose Cojuangco, Philippine Olympic Committee chairman, also told Marañon that the national government was interested in helping the Panaad expansion.

“We will make Negros Occidental the football capital of the Philippines,” Cojuangco reportedly told Marañon.

The Philippine Football Association, however, can do a lot in instilling among Negrenses better appreciation of football by undertaking a lot of seminars on football and its nuances.

It is a fact that majority of those who attended the match last Wednesday were just more patriotic reasons than because they really understood the game.

What is really needed is to deepen public appreciation for the game through a series of educational seminars on football.

“It took me a long time to know that one has to properly use his feet in kicking the ball and how to use one’s cabeza (head) to do the cabezada, pointed out Herman Santos, Confed resident manager, who hails from Victorias where the Don Bosco Institute popularized football in the past.

That, I think, was a perfect example of how one can appreciated football more if given the necessary knowledge of how the game is played and why one wins.   

* * *

Kudos to the Bacolod police for the speedy solution of the robbery Wednesday in Barangay Banago.

Noel Guzman Deo, 53, of Purok Kagaykay-Barangay 2, said he was blocked by the quartet who wielded guns and bladed weapons. They divested him of his cash, tricycle keys, wallet and left.

The four were Jude Marquez, alias “Tin-Tin”, 18; Denmark Malata, alias “Mac’Mac”, 19; Regie Morales, 18, Purok Riverside; and Jessie Villanueva, alias “Tibong”, 22, of Purok Maabi-abihon.

They are now under the lock-up cell of Precient Station 3 in Banago, according to Chief Insp. Jose Mulleta.

Police under SPO2 Rivir Montenez was hit on the head by one of four persons when a melee erupted between two warring groups after they were allowed to get inside a party venue of Azkal fans in a Bacolod hotel Wednesday.

Montanez was rushed to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Hospital for treatment of a head wound.

All the four had denied having hit Montanez on the head with a beer bottle.

Those arrested were identified as Joselito Salimot, 20; Don Murillo, 18, Mike Lester Malgabrojo, 21, and a 17-year-old whose name is being withheld by the police.

Bacolod police chief Ricardo de la Paz ordered proper charges to be filed against them if warranted.*

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