Five-and-Oh

Today is the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

On this day two years ago, during what came to be known as "The Larry Game," the Blue Eagles came back from a 20-point deficit, to beat the Adamson Falcons by three points on an LA Tenorio buzzer beater. It was probably the most improbable comeback I have seen live on the basketball floor, and to this day, remains one of the most memorable Ateneo games I have ever seen.

(The most memorable game would be the one played way back in 1994, when a bunch of unknowns from Loyola beat one of the best basketball teams to ever come out of La Salle.)

So I figured yesterday would be a good day for Ateneo basketball. Too good, in fact, that I set II Tolentino aside until after the final buzzer. Until yesterday, the Eagles were winning by an average margin of four points and change. Their last three games were not decided until the last two minutes of the game. (It's not really the sport to follow if you have a heart condition.) Yesterday, as if on cue, the Eagles beat the title-favorite UE Warriors. As early as the second quarter. They couldn't have possibly chosen a better day to finally win one convincingly.


It was a great all-around game for the Hail Mary squad. Escalona led the scoring with 14 points, including a back-breaking three after the Warriors almost closed the gap down to six. JC Intal had 10 assists (on top of 12 points and 8 rebounds). Nine eagles scored five points or more. (The Warriors' fifth-leading scorer, Martinez, sizzled with 3 points.)

OBF.

(This, by the way, is my 100th post. Yahoo.)

Photo courtesy of www.fabilioh.com.

Sincerity

In yesterday's State of the Nation Address, GMA said:

Sa mga lalawigang sakop ng 7th Division, nakikibaka sa kalaban si Jovito Palparan. Hindi siya aatras hanggang makawala sa gabi ng kilabot ang mga pamayanan at maka-ahon sa bukang-liwayway ng hustisya at kalayaan.

In the same breath, she said:

In the harshest possible terms I condemn political killings. We together stopped judicial executions with the abolition of the death penalty. We urge witnesses to come forward. Together we will stop extrajudicial executions.

You read it right, she condemned political killings immediately after she praised Palparan. As the AM radio commentator said this morning, "Yan ang presidente: sincere!"

Study Now, Pray Later

This is what happens when you do not read the commentaries for the entire first half of the term; when all you did, every week, was cram all the 15 or so assigned cases into your head a good 15 hours before class. (That would be a neat ratio of one case per hour, if you discount the fact that you still have to sleep, eat something and take a shower before going to class) You will try to absorb as much crap as De Leon could toss at you, in the shortest amount of time humanly possible.

So, many thanks to Glenda, or to Gloria, for suspending Property today, and to whatever organization which is the causa of us having no Consti 2 on Tuesday. I will have some more spare time within which I can allow De Leon to eliminate as much of my functioning brain cells as possible.

But, I still have two weeks, right? Yes. It would have been perfect if all classes are suspended until August 4, and if there are no make-up classes to screw your schedule up until then. But, of course classes, as life, go on and according to Scaebolah, "as far as your professors are concerned, you are the lowest possible life form." So there. My boss, on the other hand, is already giving me the look after I told him that I really, really need to be absent from work on August 3 and 4. Well, I can get sick, you know?

* * *

The R.A. Gapuz Review Center placed an ad in the Inquirer last Saturday, proudly proclaiming that they placed the most number of reviewees in the top ten of the nursing board examinations.

I am not sure if that is a sick joke, considering that it has already admitted that it gave its students a document containing exam topics the day before the June 11 and 12 nursing board examinations, which turned out to be, allegedly, handwritten samples of the tests.

According to the Inquirer, Ray Gapuz, founder of the review center, said he did not know if the 18-page manuscript was a “leak” and if it actually contained the exact questions in the licensing exams. But when asked if the topics in the document had appeared in the June 11 and 12 exam, Gapuz replied: “Allegedly, sabi nila (That’s what they say).”

I don't know about you. But, if my review center manages to get a copy of the actual exam questions before the actual exams, placing the most number of reviewees in the top ten is probably the least that it can do. Like, hallouer!!!

Detour

A blogger, who turned out to be the wife of one of UP's assistant coaches, remarked that:

My two beloved alma maters slugged it out at the Ninoy Aquino stadium last Sunday. Either way I'd win. But when it comes to the hardcourt, I'm a Maroon. (I'm an Eagle only in the moot court.)

Well, I personally know some people who can emphatize with her completely. Only sometimes, "when it comes to the hardcourt," it's the other way around.

(One Big Fight!)

The State of the Nation

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

- Martin Niemöller, First they came...

The following is from the online petition for the immediate release of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño. It is posted on the Philippine Collegian 2006-2007 website.

On June 26, 2006, bonnet-wearing armed men, suspected elements of the 7th Infantry Division, forcibly entered a house of local folk in Hagonoy, Bulacan and forcibly abducted Sherlyn, Karen and Manuel Merino, a local farmer. The armed men introduced themselves as ‘vigilantes.’

Sherlyn, who is two months pregnant, was hit in the stomach as she was shouting for help. Witnesses related that the armed men removed Karen’s shirt and used it to cover her face. They dragged the two women outside and rode off in a passenger jeepney vehicle.

Until now, Sherlyn and Karen have not yet surfaced. While the military denied their involvement in their forced disappearance, Major Gen. Jovito Palparan, head of the 7th ID, immediately accused them as members of the New People’s Army. In a statement released after the abduction, Gen. Palparan insultingly said that ‘they are better off gone.’

Sherlyn and Karen are student volunteers who went to Bulacan to conduct research on the peasant situation in the province. They are also known student leaders from the University of the Philippines (UP).

Sherlyn is an award-winning triathlete and a former College of Human Kinetics representative to the UP Diliman Student Council. Karen, on the other hand, is a Sociology major who was conducting research in the province for the completion of her thesis. They are also active members of Anakbayan and League of Filipino Students, respectively. These youth organizations have been maliciously tagged as ‘communist front organizations’ by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Eric Salamat, Your Table is Ready

Photo courtesy of www.fabilioh.com.

Opening Day

For the uninitiated, please be advised that during college basketball games, people do usually stand up from time to time. Some of the spectators can be observed clapping, cheering, screaming, and sometimes even cursing the zebras. Do not panic. Note that this is far from being weird. It is normal. Most specially, when the spectators are rooting for one of the teams to win (which is usually the case). You are there, along with all the people at your side of the arena, precisely, to express your shared conviction that, you are God's chosen people and the folks on the other side are the scum of the earth. (Incidentally, when we play against morons, we rarely, if ever, sit down. The seats are there for time outs. Needless to say, we will get to sit a lot this year.)

Last weekend was opening day. We were playing the traditional doormats, so there wasn't really much to stand up for. I stood up along with a number of people in my row early in the fourth, when somebody tapped me from behind, and asked that I, ehem, sit down. Look, I have no problem giving in to polite requests of nice folks who do not share the same passion and excitement that I have for a silly game (who by the way could have stayed home, watched the game on TV and saved 120 pesos in the process). But, it's an entirely different matter for folks who talk to you as if you just decapitated their dog.

So I looked at her, and gave her this terrified look - like I was looking at the face of Evil itself. I think I even managed to get a chuckle or two from her young alalay. Later in the game, when the Hail Mary team sank a flurry of baskets to seal the win, and everybody was on their feet, I turned around, faced the nice lady, and gave her the best Michael Jordan (circa 1992 vs. Portland, when all His Airness' threes were going in) impression that I could muster.

Hey, what can I do?

Nice Try

Shortly after it was found out that a PEP test review center has actually been fielding high school dropouts and high school equivalency test flunkers in basketball games for two years running, and after the "negligent" school was subsequently suspended from league play for one year, mudslinging suddenly moved up a notch, and some people just started to come up with rumors, blind items and libelous accusations, clearly indicating but one thing: desperate idiots are scary.

A few weeks ago, the same rumors were published in two national broadsheets. Everybody, of course, had an idea as to who was behind the demolition job, but unlike idiots, we prefer to have something to back our statements up. Being the ingenious Ateneans that we are, somebody (it was only a matter of time) was able to obtain a copy of the facsimile that was sent to the press. And being the idiots that they are, they, of course, conveniently used their own fax machine, which ID function was likewise conveniently enabled.

The header said "02.523.4295 DLS PSI GSB." Feel free to "Google it!"

* * *

The 69th season of the UAAP, incidentally, will open tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum. Ateneo will play the NU Bulldogs at 4PM. The Taft PEP Test Review Center will play with itself.

Big Ben and the Bulls

As a long-time Chicago sports fan, let me just share with you reports from ESPN, that Big Ben is driving east to Chicago, to play for da Bulls.

The biggest free-agent prize of the NBA offseason appears to be off the market. Ben Wallace has informed the Pistons he will sign with the Bulls, Insider Chad Ford reports. The deal is believed to be $52M for four years.

The Bulls now have an all-star center (which says a lot about centers in the East), to go along with the young backcourt tandem of Hinrich and Gordon, and wingmen Deng and Nocioni. Add 2006 draft 4th pick overall Tyrus Thomas and the perenially-underachieving Chandler, and we suddenly have a promising 2006-07 season.

C'mon. Crazier things have happened.

News and Current Affairs

During the course of the 2006 NBA playoffs, I noticed that ABC-5 was giving updates on the said playoffs, a full day late. In other words, they were giving NBA game results, that have already been delivered by the other channels, published on the Internet, broadcast on a delayed basis by local networks, and dissected by employees by the water cooler, a full day before. And I thought, it couldn't possibly be worse than that. Right.

During one of the timeouts in the SMB-RB semifinal game last night, I was able to catch a news update from ABC-5, this time about the 2006 World Cup. Firstly, the newsreader, adeptly pronounced the name of the sport's governing body as fai-fa. Miss, it's fee-fa. Repeat after me: fee-fa. Secondly, Rio de Janeiro is not the capital of Brazil. Brasilia is.

I don't know if ABC-5 has a research department, but I'm really more disappointed with the second blunder above, than with the first (it's forgivable, we don't watch football). You really don't need to pass Social Studies, or understand what those big stars on the map stand for, to get the name of the capital of Brazil right. Any idiot, can simply watch that film classic, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and get this little factoid right.