Charity begins at home

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

THE much-awaited 2007 PRISAA Pangasinan-Dagupan Basketball Invitational Championship, dubbed this year as “Mayor Al’s Cup”, was formally opened last Thursday morning with much fanfare.

The sports-minded Alipio Fernandez, Jr., Dagupan’s mayor, delivered a morale-boosting speech as the keynote speaker, while Atty. Gonzalo Duque, president of PRISAA Region 1, officially opened the tournament.

Mayor Al  told this writer a day before the opening and during the occasion last Thursday that he’s contemplating a three-year sports plan for the city which will be worked out by the city’s physical fitness and sports development council to be assisted by Kgd. Angel  Gumarang, the city’s new sports consultant.

Sports nutrition, sports discipline, sports training, sports coaching are going to be included in the plan to be able to produce world-class athletes and eventually win international medals. This dream is not impossible with support from the communities. Mass-based sports like billiards, known as pool internationally, chess, boxing, table tennis, taekwondo, swimming, track and field, basketball and cycling are in his mind.

Two thumbs up for that.

But what stunned and surprised the viewers (including this writer) was when Atty. Duque said that the management of the University of Luzon is not supposed to mix its basketball contingent with players from Manila because the league is for Pangasinan sports development.

“What Manila can do, we can also develop here in Pangasinan,” Duque said.

It’s his way of saying “charity begins at home” or as we say it in Pangasinan, “Solar ko aroen ko.”

Duque, or Gonz as he’s fondly called by his friends and relatives, just borrowed the word ‘import’ during his speech, criticizing UL’s move. He used the word ‘import’ because it is commonly used by Filipinos in sports competitions, particularly basketball, when you hire athletes outside your place for the affair. Obviously, Duque meant ‘recruit’, not ‘import’ because the players were from Manila and not from other countries.

Much like also the word ‘salvage’, which the Filipinos define it as a ‘summary execution’ and that is wrong because according to Mr. Noah Webster (dictionary), salvage means to save from destruction, especially from a ship.

So it’s not the proper word. Nonetheless, it’s already a common practice among  Filipinos and already accepted colloquially, similar to the word ‘import.’

       I honestly believe that the Mecca of basketball is still Manila. But I will echo what Gonz said that what Manila can achieve, our province, Pangasinan, can also achieve. It’s just a matter of proper development.

In European cycling, they have an adage that goes: “champions are not born, they are developed,” and I agree with that because it happened to me. No need to elaborate because you readers know how I came about in sports.

I totally agree with what Gonz felt. I love this province’s athletes and I will continue to help develop our athletes – especially our cyclists, which is my forte – until the last breath of my life.

Charity begins at home. Period.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/sports-eye/)

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