Officers and members of the PBA Press Corps who have been around since the formation of the group 25 years ago in 1989 all agree that this year’s Christmas party, held last Sunday at Dad’s (Kamayan-Saisaki) on Padre Faura in Manila, was by far the merriest.
It was indeed the merriest but no one could say exactly what made it so.
As in past years, ice-cold beer compliments of San Miguel Corp. flowed copiously, while sumptuous buffet food came in abundance. Virgil Villavicencio, a PR man of the MVP group, made sure that everyone was well fed and everybody’s glass filled to the brim.
The younger brother of Triple V Restaurants owner Vic-Vic played the perfect host.
Actually, two VIPs assisted Virgil in the evening’s hosting chores—PBA chair Pato Gregorio and league media bureau chief Willie Marcial. It was also through them that the majority of the cash raffle prizes was raised.
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Zaldy Perez of UNTV and Abante said Tempo’s Tito Talao, who provided the live guitar music accompaniment practically all night long, should get most of the credit for keeping the mood lively.
Tito played the guitar as the less-shy scribes sang their hearts out.
In-between singing, self-appointed emcee Arman Carandang of People’s Journal would take the podium to tell funny anecdotes and pick out the raffle winners. Except for the three rice cookers, all the prizes were in cash.
Except for a handful of very unfortunate souls, almost everyone went home that night richer by one-, two- or five-thousand pesos.
Arman was the ultimate entertainer. He could emcee, sing, play the piano, organ, guitar, and tell stories and jokes with a straight face.
Some of his colleagues volunteered to be his agent should he decide to go into show business.
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Everyone agreed that the “Entertainer of the Evening” award was a toss-up between Tito and Arman. Surprisingly, many contributed unexpected flashes of comic brilliance.
It was Bubble Gang night and laughter was the order of the evening. It was the laughter that had made this year’s edition of the PBA Press Corps’ Christmas party, organized by its president Barry Pascua, the merriest and most riotous.
Strangely, no one from the association was aware that they had failed to celebrate their silver anniversary.
The PBAPC still has six or seven founding members. I used to attend their meetings, but could only remember five of the pioneers: the late Raffy Japa, Zaldy Perez, Rickie Santos, who is now operations head of the PBA, Libre managing editor Chito de la Vega, and Manila Bulletin deskman Rocky Nazareno, who authored the association’s constitution and by-laws.