GAB’s 4 problem sports

They say you can spot a boxer just by looking at his hands.
The hands are big, the palms are wide and the knuckles appear to be knotty and enlarged.
New GAB chair Ramon Guanzon, who replaced Eric Buhain, has such hands.
If you look at him, your eves will inevitably be drawn to  his hands.
“The chair was a boxer in his younger days,” said  Matthew “Fritz” Gaston, who was recently appointed one of two GAB commissioners over a week ago. The other is lawyer Aquil Tamano,  son of former Sen. Mamintal Tamano and younger brother of the more famous Adel Tamano, also  a lawyer.
Guanzon, Tamano and Fritz were the sports columnists’  guests in last Monday’s dinner forum at Gerry’s Grill in Tomas Morato.
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Although chair Guanzon is about eight years Fritz’s senior, they share a number of things in addition to their passion for  various sports. They’re both Ilonggos and they’re both former Ateneans.
In fact, the chair is based in Bacolod, from where he was plucked by Buhain.
He is now living in his brother’s house at Ayala Heights.
Guanzon, 62,  said he joined GAB in 2007 as commissioner in charge of administration, the post now occupied  by Fritz.
“He’s  a bit shy and retiring,” said Fritz. “It takes a while for him to be comfortable with people he has just met.”
Curiously, the new chair was instantly at home with the scribes.
One thing about  Guanzon, according to veteran  scribe Ronnie Nathanielsz, is “he’s an extremely honest man.”
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I must agree with Ronnie.  I met Guanzon only for the first time last Monday and found him honest to a fault, in more ways than one.
“Aquil told me your daughter was his classmate in high school. If your daughter is Aquil’s age,  I figure you must be old,” said the chair with a guffaw as his executive assistant approached us.
A tall girl with huge dimensions, Guanzon was still smiling as she walked away from us.
“You must feel really at home with her around, she’s bigger than you.”
It was a rude awakening for someone who was once a bombshell, but I told him I had my time.
Despite his “honesty,” it was difficult not to like the new GAB chair who caught the fancy of even a most discriminating scribe like Tito Talao of Bulletin/Tempo, who pledged his full support to him and his men.
Because of his unblemished record in the agency, Guanzon’s services were retained by the Aquino administration and he was in fact even promoted from commissioner to chair.
The following day, I seriously considered signing up for The Biggest Loser program.
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Guanzon said he expected problems from four sports under GAB. These are boxing, billiards, jai-alai and mixed martial arts.
Initially he thought boxing would give the agency the biggest headache, but it turned out to be jai-alai.
“Our problems always has something to do with licensing,” he said.
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By the time this particular Monday session broke up, it was close to midnight. After a few hours in huddle with the new GAB officials, the columnists seemed convinced that they would do right by what they were sworn to accomplish for the government agency.
The group aimed to meet every quarter and members of the PBA Press Corps invited the GAB to form a team that will compete in the annual Rafy Japa Basketball Cup. The person tasked to do this was Aquil, a schoolmate and teammate of former Sta. Lucia team manager Ariel Magno, also a lawyer.
Both Ariel and Aquil are law graduates from the University of the Philippines.