by Moses Billacura
Lawyer Larry Pasquil and his friends, tournament chairman Atty. Ed Batacan and committee member lawyer Butch Jocom, are busy promoting the 1st Banana Tee golf tournament scheduled May 29 to 30 at the Davao City Golf Club.
The “best-ball” tournament will have A, B and C categories. Pasquil said the difference between the partners’ handicaps must not be nine or more, otherwise, the handicap that will be used by the team will be 3/4 of the handicap of the partner who has a lower handicap.
If the difference, he said, of the partners is eight or less, the handicap of the team will be 3/4 of 1/2 of the total team handicap. For example, if the partner of the player with an eight handicap is 16, their total handicap is 24. 1/2 of 24 is 12, 3/4 of 12 is nine, therefore nine is the handicap of the team.
To all prospective participants, start looking for the best partner now.
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Davao City councilor Peter Lavina, who is also president of the Davao Sports Council Inc., was among those saddened by the loss of former Philippine Sports Commission chairman William “Butch” Ramirez in the recent election.
Ramirez attempted to snatch a seat in the Davao City Council to bring the voice of the sports community and the education sector, being a sportsman and a former teacher at Holy Cross of Davao College and Ateneo de Davao University.
Unfortunately, he did not win.
That would leave newly-elected councilor April Marie Dayap as the lone legislator with an agenda for sports development to push through in the City Council under newly-elected vice mayor, Rodrigo R. Duterte. Dayap, with the guidance of chairman Ramirez and councilor Lavina, started public hearings for the creation of a Davao City Sports Commission but did not finish the work because of term limits.
She was replaced by newly-elected SK president Halila Y. Sudagar. I can fully understand that sports development is a complicated subject for Sudagar. It’s too technical and the benefits are not immediate.
But I hope that councilor Dayap, who has not missed seeing her brothers play basketball for the Jose Maria College Kings in the Gaisano Cup and other leagues, will finish the unfinished business for amateur sports development in the Davao City.
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This early, the Davao Sports Council Inc. and the So Kim Cheng (SKC) Sports Foundation officials have started discussion on the 16th SKC Sports Awards on July 22.
The Council and the SKC Foundation honor outstanding performances of Davao athletes, coaches and officials as well as give citations to sports patrons from the private and government sectors every year during the birthday of the late So Kim Cheng, the first president of the Council and the only Davao City-based national president of a National Sports Association, the Table Tennis Association of the Philipppines (Tatap), a member of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).
The late Mr. So was beloved as a sports leader by athletes, not only because of his generosity, but because of his genuine love for sports. He took table tennis to greater heights in the Philippines by paving the way in the hosting international tournaments that attracted top athletes in the world.
The businessman was kidnapped and killed 16 years ago in Brgy. Mandug. After his death, the SKC Awards was organized to honor his memory.
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Happy birthday to Atty. Caloy Zarate, who defended me in a libel case filed by then Philippine Chess Federation (PCF) regional coordinator James Infiesto for our work in exposing the anomalies of the 2000 National Inter-City Chess Tournament hosted by the PCF Davao and funded by the City Government of Davao.
Another national chess tournament is on May 15 to 19 at the NCCC Mall and May 20 to 24 at the Gaisano Mall in Davao City. I hope that we will not receive any complaints that will be the basis of the news reports. Naturally, if poor chess players complain, we cannot just close our eyes and shut our ears.
The same birthday greetings also to Bukidnon-based journalist Waltzib Balane and to my brother, Merell John, a faculty member of the Mindanao State University.
