Who’s afraid of the pigheaded Azkals?

Cristy Ramos, driven daughter of former President Fidel Ramos, has every reason to suspect fame has gotten into the heads of the Philippine Askals.
“Did they think that (their) famous name has given them the right to do and say anything they wanted?” Ms Ramos told GMA News Wednesday.
It was unclear at first, but soon enough, it became evident Ramos had been subjected to indignity inside the national team dugout last Saturday, before the goodwill match between the Philippines and Malaysia which eventually ended in a 1-all draw.
The Azkals, which managed to score first, received their well-deserved cheers.
* * *
But it did not take long before bothered sectors proceeded to decry the foul, immature manifestations of at least two foreign team members with Filipino roots, who were accused by Ramos of subjecting her to sexual harassment.
“I had done over a hundred games as a commissioner here and abroad, but this was the first time this had happened to me,” Ramos explained.
What’s harder to take, as far as media was concerned, was this characterless recommendation not to touch on the issue at hand.
* * *
Columnist Beth Celis wrote yesterday that “a senior colleague,” advised her to “keep off it,” because they didn’t know the exact circumstances.
Celis said his colleague warned her that the matter has escalated into a network war.
“GMA is in support of Ramos while ABS-CBN is protecting the Azkals, who have a live contract with the network,” Celis quoted her elder colleague as saying.
Bloody good Celis shunned the senseless advice.
She instead called up Cristy Ramos who detailed the dugout disorder and pig-sty manners of the Azkals after she started performing her assigned task.
* * *
Not to put anybody in a bad light, but only a bogus Filipino would’ve had the gall to mislead an inquisitive reporter from finding the truth and writing about it.
It was not merely a feminist issue.
The dugout incident bared the low regard among most of the imported members of the Azkals team for their host country that continued to extend them undue admiration.
Manager Dan Palami had apologized, but the international football body would do well to crack the whip.
A suspension would be too mild a reprimand.
* * *
The famous lawyer Romy Makalintal said the Games and Amusements Board should’ve disallowed the bout in Bohol on Saturday wherein the comeback kid Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista was fed a super patsy, who managed to dupe the promoters by using the name of a rated Mexican fighter.
Makalintal has a point, but in as much as the blasphemy had already been perpetrated, the next best thing to do is declare the bout a no-contest by striking out the result from official ring records.
Unless Bautista needs the empty win for his rating.
* * *
As promised, here’s part of a report on the bright performance of Olympic hopeful Charly Suarez in India last week:
“Filipino amateur boxing standout Charly Suarez scored a major upset on Friday in the World Series of boxing quarterfinals by scoring a shutout (3-0) win against World No. 4 Semen Gribackev of Azerbaijan. Suarez, 23, was recruited by Mumbai Fighters of India, one of 12 international franchises in the league organized by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). Suarez stunned feisty Azeri with lightning-quick jabs and precise combinations so that the hometown crowd in Mumbai thought the fight was practically over after three rounds. The veteran Azeri, 27, however tried to come back in the last round, but Suarez was already sitting on a comfortable lead. Suarez’s win propelled his team to a hard-fought 3-2 victory over erstwhile unbeaten Baku Fires. Suarez has been invited to rejoin the Mumbai Fighters for next year’s tournament. He will vie for the lone Olympic slot available for Asia in the lightweight (60 kg) category in the Asian Qualifying Tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan April 4-13.”

Read more...