Upsetting events in Philippine pool, social welfare

It indeed looked every easy inch a won match.
The clincher was wide open—a gimme putt, if you please—the foes would’ve thrown in the towel had it been the last ball of the final rack.
Horror of horrors, Calamba’s Ronnie Alcano, two-time world champion and legendary pool shark, flubbed the easy 8-ball in the 17th rack, after he and Dennis Orcollo had splendidly, magically evened up at 8-all (from a 6-8 hole) in the race-to-9 quarterfinal, thereby throwing away a last chance for the country to rule the 2011 World Cup of Pool Saturday night.
You can’t win them all, but this was an atrocity which will take some time for Alcano, and Philippine pool for that matter, to live down.
* * *
“How could he, of all people?” cried Ernesto Chieng, better known as Totoy Luz at his pool parlor in Barrio Onse, San Juan, Nick Joaquin’s old haunt.
It was so easy, even a neophyte could’ve hit it right, Totoy exclaimed, putting his three fingers together on top of the corner pocket, to demonstrate how anomalously wide that miss of misses was.
He was right. The last time a dooming disappointment of this damning size fell on Philippine sports was in 2002 yet, when spitfire Olsen Racela, needing only one point against South Korea, wilted and missed both free throws, thereby depriving the Philippines a sure silver and an outright crack at the Asian Games basketball title in Busan.
So the morning after—and until yesterday—local fans were still aghast, mystified.
How could he, of all people? He should’ve not rushed it and first asked the crowd to calm down.
Or was Alcano himself in a race, trying to beat butterflies in his tummy, the nasty pool rat called Kabog, gnawing fast at his guts?
It was cruel but inevitably, there were those who wondered if the miscue was in exchange for a bigger price.
By the way, the debacle capped one of the darkest weeks in Philippine pool, ushered in earlier by the ouster of the legendary win-win pair of Bata Reyes and Django Bustamante.
* * *
The Alcano caper could be counted as a forgivable mystery.
Unlike this crime story:
One of three suspects in the gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl last September 1 in Mandaluyong City has escaped following a feared collusion among apprehending officers.
This information was passed on to this reporter by an influential civic worker in the Tiger City who requested anonymity for the moment.
A police operation shortly after the rape resulted in the arrest of three suspects, minors who were then turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Mandaluyong branch.
The rape victim, allegedly a friend of the suspects, tested positive for sexual molestation at the Camp Crame crime laboratory.
The escape of one of three suspects was reported by the DSWD representative during the preliminary investigation of the case before Assistant Prosecutor Chito Mendoza last Friday.
* * *
Naturally, the victim’s father, Larry Albag, a construction worker, decried the negligence of the DSWD in the performance of its duty—which led to the escape of the suspect.
From what he has gathered, our informant said the apprehending cops had themselves offered parents of the victim P100,000 for a settlement of the case.
Suddenly, the suspect escaped after the cash settlement offer was turned down.
Since official investigators themselves had made extraordinary moves that obviously led to the mysterious disappearance of the suspect, our informant has requested this reporter to recommend the case to my idol and dear kumpadre, Imbestigador Mike Enriquez of lead network GMA 7.
Take a bow, Pareng Mike.