A BRIEF silence followed after sports columnist/newscaster Zaldy Perez broke the news during the Sports Vision Christmas party that the Shakey’s V-League would be one superstar short when the next season opens in 2014.
“Why?” a concerned Moying Martelino of Sports Vision, the production/marketing/public relations outfit behind the
V-League wanted to know.
Perez said Meralco’s Fille Cainglet had just gotten married and will most likely hang up her jersey to assume her new role as housewife.
“Well she can still play even if she’s married,” a worried-looking Martelino argued. “Getting married doesn’t necessarily mean retirement!”
“Wanna bet?” the scribe challenged Martelino. “After the honeymoon, the babies will come. She’ll get pregnant, have a baby, and will be tied down completely to mother and housewife chores. In other words, her interest will no longer be on volleyball”.
“To start with, her husband might have already disallowed her from playing volleyball at this stage,” Perez said, referring to Taguig Rep. Lino Cayetano.
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Sherwin Malonzo, Ateneo’s volleyball program head who was in an adjacent table and within earshot, politely corrected Perez on the prodding of mutual friend Rhea Navarro, who is in Manila for her annual Christmas vacation. Navarro is based in Qatar and works as liaison officer of the Qatar Basketball Federaton.
“Fille’s husband Lino Cayetano is also a movie director,” Malonzo clarified. “He comes from a family of politicians. His siblings Pia and Alan Peter are both senators. So was his late father, Rene. It was Lino who donated part of his liver to his father when he needed a transplant. Fille and Lino met just after the national elections last May.”
Sherwin said he and Lino were teammates in the UP varsity volleyball team in the 1990s.
“Lino played for the UP varsity from 1994 to 1999. He’s a very good volleyball player, but is now into triathlon like his sister Pia. Fille, on the other hand, had been under the Ateneo volleyball program until her graduation.”
According to Ateneo sports director and Sports Vision president Ricky Palou, Cainglet is an open spiker who has good placement shots.
“She can jump high and has a hang time that allows her to see the chinks in the opponent’s defense. She last played in the All-Stars and we had absolutely no inkling that she had plans to get married,” said the bearded Palou.
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I saw Lino Cayetano guest in a morning talk show just before the May elections.
In the show, he was being linked to several beautiful and high-profile ladies like KC Concepcion, Liz Uy and Bianca Gonzales.
“Were there really links to these ladies?” I asked. I got a collective affirmation.
“But why was Kris Aquino’s name not mentioned?” somebody asked.