World Champ Nonito Donaire

"Oh my! That's ano, ano... Nonito Donaire!!" exclaimed a fan infront of me during lunch at Fiji Restaurant in Plantation Bay in Mactan, Cebu. When I turned to look, he didn't resemble the mean fighter last February who knocked out his opponent Manuel Vargas in the third round. In fact, he looked more like the boy next door, wholesome, pleasant and always smiling. One fan who shook his hand exclaimed that his hand was softer and smoother than hers!

27-year old Nonito a.k.a. The Filipino Flash is currently the World Boxing Association (WBA) interim World Super Flyweight champion and is rated by The Ring magazine, as the #6 pound-for-pound best boxer in the world (Note: fellow pinoy boxer Manny Pacquiao is rated #1). His boxing record is impressive - 23 wins out of 24, 15 of which are KOs.

Taking a weekend break from his training under the Penalosa brothers, he was with his wife Rachel Marcial and her father Gerry and his Cebu-based cousins. Without any posse, he was surprisingly easy going and was taking time out to pose, talk to fans and even sing! Yup, he sings! After the Brazilian night dinner show, he was called onstage and I was actually rolling my eyes. Well, after the Jimmy Kimmel bout last November, I was not too sure. Surprise, surprises! He sang My Girl by Temptations well and his rendition of his wife's favorite song I'm Yours by Jason Marz was quite good. I found out later that he performed a shadow boxing dance in the lobby that afternoon while the pianist played Eye of the Tiger.

I asked him about the next fight of Pacquaio against Clottey. He said that in boxing you'll never know what will happen and added that he and Rachel will fly to Dallas to watch the fight but will be back in Manila to train. His next fight is this May against Mexico's Fernando Montiel for the WBO bantamweight crown.

When asked if Filipino boxers are respected abroad. He said "not until boxers reach a certain level. Boxing is still considered a poor man's sport in this country and fortunately, not quite so in the States." He is happy that he is representing the country of his birth, the Philippines.

Unfortunately, according to his father-in-law, this is not true for his daughter who is a USA National Collegiate and Military Taekwondo champion. He said "She has not been considered by the Philippine Sport Association to represent the Philippines despite beating USA's taekwondo Olympic contender." As a side note, funny that Jofer Velez is experiencing the same problem with his 19-year old daughter, Karyn Velez's status in badminton. She is now training in Florida and doing well in the international circuit. He said "this is the first time for a pinay (well now, american) to score olympic points in BWF/IBF international competition."

After meeting and talking to Nonito and Rachel, I must say I am a certified fan of both. I can't wait to watch his next fight and I do wish that Rachel gets to represent the Philippines in taekwondo! I am now pondering on the politiking involved and the poor state of the athletes in this country that I may just give, despite the hullabaloo on the Party-List representation, "Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta" my vote!

Nonito onstage:

My fave running gadget: 310xt

Yup! I confess! I'm a gadget junkie and got a Garmin Forerunner 310XT recently, right after the Condura Race.
In the next race, I promise to just cross the finish line, get the medal and take off instead of hanging around and checking out what's inside the tents. Well... I must confess that I also got an Asics after having my foot scanned and examined by the two japs who flew in for the event. They said that since my right foot is longer (22.8 cm) and breadth wider (9.2cm) plus I'm flat footed and wearing a heel support, the best would be a Kayano. Yup! Sucker. Bought a pair.
I ran with both this evening. I am currently tinkering with the 310XT and downloading all the freebie stuff online (including blackberry). I must say I am very very happy because not only can I sync it to Mac [unlike my old polar watch], it is to boot, GPS-enabled and I can view the route on the tiny 1.3 x 0.8 inch screen!! And, it is water resistant up to 50-meters! Should I go snorkeling with it? ha ha...

Bayanijuan sa Calauan in Laguna

Former Estero de Paco resident Flor Villalon was beaming with joy as she toured me around her 24 sq m home in BayaniJuan sa Calauan, a resettlement site located in Laguna, about 1.5 hours drive from Metro Manila. She exclaimed "I am so happy. I now have my own home."

Estero de Paco, taken by Damon Lynch in 2009

Flor is one of the beneficiaries of ABS-CBN Foundation's Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig (KBPIP), roughly translated as join hands for Pasig River. KBPIP has been at the forefront to clear the 27-km Pasig River and its tributaries of garbage. In order to clean the river, they have to first relocate the informal settlers living along it which is estimated to be 5,000 families (right photo shows a typical riverside neighborhood, photo taken by Damon Lynch). The families are relocated to the 107-hectare National Housing Authority (NHA) site in Calauan, Laguna now called BayaniJuan sa Calauan.

The plan is to gradually build-up the site to 10,000 families over a period of seven years to adequately provide basic support services. However, with the onslaught last year of typhoon Ondoy, the population has now swelled to 4,000 families and with the weekly average of 100 families arriving from typhoon hit areas, the site will reach half its planned target in less than one year.

View from Pedro Gil, taken by Damon Lynch in 2009

According to Renato "Kaka" Constantino, in-charge of Community Development, they are facing two challenges: one is Education, there are currently 900 students handled by only nine teachers. The school has already instituted two shifts from 6-11 and 12 to 5pm to accommodate the growing size. Second is to introduce sustainable projects to provide means of livelihood. He said that there is an urgent need to 'retool, retrain and equip' the relocatees because most are unskilled ambulant vendors. Livelihood is important so that they can decently provide for their family and not seek work back in Manila.

Kaka said that the easiest entry point for livelihood in BayaniJuan sa Caluan is construction i.e. carpentry, plumbing and house wiring. TESDA has trained 50 workers (and is training more) who are now part of the construction and iron and sash teams building the homes pledged by Sunlife, Habitat for Humanity, Ayala etc. Tetchie Diego, who is in-charge of Livelihood and Support Service has set-up projects targeted to women such as making bags out of used newspaper which is now sold to Manila-based stores (left photo), picture frames and will soon introduce organic farming such as ampalaya, vegetables and arugula and sewing as soon as their pledged high-speed sewing machines arrive.

At the moment, the site has no central water or power supply. There are water pumps located in every block and potable water is sold at P3 per 5-gallon containers. Adtel has donated solar energy to power street lampposts and the school. There is a clinic with a 24/7 nurse and Dr. Sonny Viloria, one of the pioneers of the practice of Natural Medicine in the country, comes every Thursday and Friday.

According to Kaka, they will be building a wet market soon and to accommodate more school children, 15 classroom (donated by NHA) is under construction beside the existing school at Site 1 and 36 classroom (donated by the Pasig City government will be built in Site 3 .


Gina Lopez, managing director of ABS-CBN Foundation said early last year during the site's launch “Bayanijuan sa Calauan is about showing how the Filipino spirit can be, how we can all work together...This is an ideal place, where we can bring the informal settlers from Pasig River to transform and improve their lives through Bayanijuan.” Well, she didn't expect the population to quadruple! Her target was at least 1,000 families per year. Our company recently visited the site to check out how we can support. If you are interested to help, please contact Ish Panganiban, Resource Mobilization Officer at (+632)415-2227 or (+63927) 649-9140 or email ishpanganiban@yahoo.com.

2010 Philippine Holidays - long weekends!!

To all the Kaladkarins out there, it's time to plot out the holidays this 2010. One thing I'll surely miss when PGMA steps down this May 2010 is her penchant for organizing 3-day weekends. She started this in 2008 when she laid out 10 long weekends by transferring some holidays to a Monday or a Friday. Her strategy dubbed 'holiday economics' would allow pinoys to spend more time with their families and thus, boost domestic tourism. Well, I guess the latter worked. According to a report, during the first nine months last year, the volume of domestic tourist increased by 21% while foreign tourist grew only by 2.7%.

For 2010, here's the schedule of long-weekends based on Republic Act 9492 and Proclamation 1841:

February 22 (Mon) - EDSA Revolution Anniversary (three-day long weekend from Feb 20)
April 1 (Thu) - Holy Thursday
April 2 (Fri) - Good Friday (four-day long weekend from April 1 to 4)
April 9 (Fri) - Araw ng Kagitingan (three-day long weekend from April 9 to 11)
May 1 (Sat) - Labor Day
June 14 (Mon) - Independence Day (three-day long weekend from June 12 to 14)
August 23 (Mon) - Ninoy Aquino Day (three-day long weekend from August 21 to 23)
August 30 (Mon) - National Heroes Day (three-day long weekend from August 28 to 30)
September - Eid'l Fitr (TBA, calculated September 10, possible three-day long weekend from September 10 to 12)
November 1 (Mon) - All Saints Day (three-day long weekend from October 30 to November 1)
November - Eid 'l Adha (TBA, calculated November 16)
November 29 (Mon) - Bonifacio Day (three-day long weekend from November 27 to 29)
December 24 (Fri) - Non-Working Holiday
December 25 (Sat) - Christmas Day
December 27 (Mon) - Rizal Day (four-day long weekend from December 24 to 27)
December 31 (Fri) - Non-Working Holiday
January 1 - (Sat) New Year's Day (three-day long weekend from December 31 to January 2)