Last week, President Duterte proclaimed October as volleyball month.
The Executive Order No. 80 aims to put the staging of the 2016 FIVB Women’s Club World Championship, which started yesterday at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, in the center of the national eye.
This is only the second time in 20 years that a President of the Philippines declared a volleyball month. The first time was in 1994 when the country hosted the FIVB Women’s World Club Championship.
The current proclamation is an indication that Mr. Duterte’s administration is a strong supporter of Philippine sports.
Mr. Duterte initially showed his love for sports when our national athletes bound for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics paid him a courtesy call in Malacañang.
He even announced that the athletes and coaches will receive additional allowances for the Rio Games and asked PSC chair Butch Ramirez to accompany them to Brazil.
When Hidilyn Diaz bagged a silver medal, the President gave an additional P2 million on top of the P5 million incentive mandated by law.
The new PSC has also begun looking into its books in an effort to fulfill the President’s order to stamp out corruption in all government agencies.
With all the attention the President has given to our national athletes within his first 100 days in power, we can say that Philippine sports will not be neglected by his administration.
It was a delight watching PBA players strut their wares not on the hard court but on the dance floor.
In Huddle saw them in the afternoon variety show Eat Bulaga’s “Challenge Accepted: Basket Ballroom” competition segment, where they displayed the dancing prowess basketball fans hardly see.
The weekly finalists were Ryan Araña, Paul Artadi, Dylan Ababou, Willie Miller, Mo Tautuaa and Mark Andaya.
All of them swayed and boogied with their beautiful scantily clad partners like professional dance instructors.
But Araña, with his terpsichorean fluidity and grace, wowed the judges and the studio audience after he juggled three balls while dancing and earned the right to enter the grand finals.