Dindin Santiago-Manabat. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Dindin Santiago-Manabat has been playing the active lifestyle for almost half her 22-year life, but with a baby coming her way the 6-foot-2 middle blocker is taking a little break from volleyball.
She played her last volleyball early in December on Game 3 of the Philippine Super Liga Grand Prix finals where her Petron Blaze Spikers lost to her sister Jaja’s Foton Tornadoes and she’s ready to move on from the sport—temporarily at least.
Without volleyball in the meantime, Manabat will instead focus on setting up shop as she plans to put up a small restaurant near her alma mater National University.
“Right now I’m not playing, I’ll just make use of this free time and set up a small business,” Manabat said. “It’s a small business, a small restaurant for students.”
She added it’s more of a student-meal place rather a café, a business Petron teammate Aby Maraño put up near De La Salle University.
Breaking the news
Manabat said the Petron locker room was a room full of tears after their devastating loss in the PSL Grand Prix Finals and the looming departure of their imports.
But the mood immediately turned around when she announced that she and her husband were expecting a baby.
“When Erica said her goodbyes, we were crying, plus we lost the title,” Manabat said. “First we were crying because we were sad but the moment I said I was pregnant they cried again but this time it was because of joy.
Manabat said she found out that she was pregnant a week before game 3, but she just told her baby: “I just talked to my baby and said ‘baby, just hold on, palo lang si mommy.”
“Aby worried because I played while I was pregnant, Ate Rachelle (Daquis) were asking why I played.”
Of all her teammates, it was fellow mom Fille Cainglet-Cayetano who the most ecstatic and immediately gave her tips.
“Fille was so happy I’m a mom since she’s also a mommy,” Manabat said. “She advised what to do during the pregnancy, what to do when I feel things, how to eat healthy, stuff like that.”