Megadeth In Manila

"This is our first time in Manila... I can tell you I'm very impressed...The thing about coming to the Philippines is, it's been long overdue. We should have come here a long time ago." - Dave Mustaine

I was fortunate to witness the one night performance of Megadeth in Manila last Sunday night. To top it off, I was able to watch it together with old bandmates that have a similar liking to listening and playing to Megadeth's music. Needless to say, I've been a Megadeth music fan since post college.

We waited for about 3-4 hours before the show started. The fans' long wait was well worth it when the band came in a little past 8:30pm to begin their set. Aside from playing songs from their latest album ("13"), they ran through their best hits. Below is what I was able to recall:

- Hangar 18

- A Tout Le Monde

- Peace Sells

- Angry Again

- Sweating Bullets

- Symphony of Destruction
- Trust
- In My Darkest Hour

- Dawn Patrol



And, of course, with Dave's backdrop story of the bad happening all around ("The Chinese. The Russians. All bullshit."), he enters the ever familiar intro to the song that launched their place in rock history:

- Holy Wars...The Punishment Due



Swaying to the Symphony...



For one and a half hour, I started out jumpin' and headbangin'. There was a mosh pit 1 or 2 feet from me and I was REALLY tempted to jump in. Unfortunately, my 38-year old self had to pull back my teenage version from possibly getting hurt from the (enjoyable) carnage. Still, as I looked for an empty space to catch my breath, I headbanged away as Megadeth's music brought me back to my past when I was, in my humble standards, a sure shoo-in for Dave Ellefson's bass playing.



Megalights!



The whole concert experience was what I wanted it to be. I have this DVD/CD set of Rude Awakening that I bought over E-Bay years ago and the sound was as darn beautiful as I hoped it would be. As this was a standing-only event, I could only scan Dave and his compatriots by tip-toeing from time to time. But I was ably content: even if my eyes couldn't see, my ears heard and experienced Megadeth...LIVE!

It was a surreal experience seeing Megadeth playing live. I wished they played more songs that night, their objective of leaving the audience wanting for more was met. But still, we all had a darn good time. The ticket price of 2,930 pesos was well worth it. Damn it, if I knew the 5,000 peso ticket would be THAT close, I would've bought that one! I was glad that I made that gamble of buying the ticket and watch my rock heroes play live, even after running a full marathon that morning.

And yeah, I (finally) bought myself my first Megadeth shirt ---with the Manila/Asian tour written at the back. That shirt will be with me for years to come!

To borrow a line from Peace Sells, "If there's a new [Megadeth concert], I'll be the first in line!"

------------

Annie Alejo of Manila Bulletin has a more exemplary review of this concert. You can read it here.

From Thomas to Optimus Prime

Time flies so fast. Last Saturday, Lucas turned 6. It seems only yesterday that he just came out from the missus' womb and I was cradling this tiny miracle in my arms.

I still remember that Friday 6 years ago. I was still working in Malaysia and the missus had to go back to Manila to give birth via scheduled C-section so that I can go home in time for the birth of my first born.

It was wonderful to experience welcoming Lucas to the world, even when I had to go back to Malaysia in tears since he had to be left in the hospital for a few more days due to an infection (which he later recovered from to our relief).

Two weeks later, I started working in Manila again and Lucas was a bundle of joy that I was honored to have witnessed growing up each day, each month, and each year.

His love for toys had matured from Barney, to Thomas the Train, and now Spongebob and The Transformers. He has mastered the art of drawing which the missus and I are always amazed as to what new he has drawn in his etch-a-sketch toy or in the scratch paper using pencil or pen.

He's very well behaved and can be very independent. I try to pray with him every night with his composed prayer:

Bless Mommy,
Bless Daddy,
Bless Lucas,
Bless Matteo
.
.
.


.
.
.
Bless God
Bless Jesus
Bless Mama Mary
.
.
.
Please don't let me have bad dreams
Take care of us
Please don't let me have bad dreams

Amen.


Lucas, if you're able to read this years from now, your Mom and I want you to know that we're very very proud of you. We are very blessed to have you with us, experiencing your creativity, your laugh, and your love for us and your brother each and every day.
 

Happy 6th birthday!

Beautiful Bohol

AMORITA RESORT

My family and I stayed at this beautiful resort in Bohol last May 2012 for 3 days, 2 nights. The place was very relaxing. The room with its splash pool was so great that my boys preferred it over the main swimming pool next to the resort's restaurant (which came with a cool view).

The price of the food inside the resort is rather steep (as in most hotels) but you have the chance of eating elsewhere, particularly the long queue of restaurants along the shoreline which can be accessed from the Amorita's path to the beach.

The beach is clear and the sand is white which the family and I found to be quite ok.

I in particular had a great time roaming around the roads via the mountain bike free rental that the resort provided.

THINGS TO DO IN BOHOL

Bohol is quite organized in terms of its tourism. We were able to go to the following sights:

1. Chocolate Hills

2. Loboc River Cruise

3. Tarsier sighting

4. Man-made forest

 

Yup, going to Bohol is something that I'd highly recommend.

Champagne Room, Manila Hotel

The missus and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last Tuesday at the Manila Hotel Champagne Room. Man, 8 years na kami, and still going strong!

The Champagne Room boasts of a classy European setup which the missus and I liked. The price of the food is almost the same as that of Cafe Ysabel's. An exception is the price of a glass of champagne which costs around P900.00 each (and I ordered two. Yikes!).

I guess we should be eating more regularly at fine-dining places since our stomachs, in particular, needs to get more used to the food. Hehehe. Nevertheless, the food was quite ok.

We'll definitely come back to this place again. Hopefully, when I get a job promotion. :)

 

Flambe right next to your table

Shrimp Flambe



US grilled steak



Banana flambe for dessert (yummy!)

Cheers for 8 years (and counting)!



Weight Loss Update: Lipid

As of this post I've lost a total of 7 lbs via calorie-counting my food intake using the myfitnesspal app (yey!). It has still been a challenge to control eating, especially last week when I HAD to give in to the delicious spread of food when I had to work in Davao. Yellow Fin is definitely the place to eat when you're in Davao City.



That 3 day eating binge caused me to gain 3lbs, which I had fortunately erased since yesterday after going all out with my running and less eating last weekend.

The best part of this weight loss journey was made just today, when I had to claim my lipid profile test results from my HMO provider. At first, I was beside myself when I checked that I still had high cholesterol, LDL, and HDL readings. I was so disappointed that I had to see one of the doctors in the HMO office to assess what needs to be done to normalize all of this. She told me that I have 3 weeks to have a low fat diet. Otherwise, she will have to recommend me to take cholesterol-lowering drugs which is unnatural and could be costly. This means eating only fish, fruits, and veggies. Anything fried should be the last food that I should be eating. This will be a challenge for me since the only veggies and fruits that I eat are coleslaw (on the side of a KFC 2pc chicken meal) and fruit shakes (which is very seldom).

At this point I would have to say that I am jealous of the missus, who has been lazy to tie up her shoes to run the treadmill and eats as much sweet desserts, has spectacularly normal blood test results! Here I am running 3-4 times a week, having run 3 full marathons and countless half-marathons with high cholesterol and she gets to lie down on bed on weekday afternoons with normal lipid/sugar levels year after year. Man, talk about life being unfair, right?!

But as I got back to the office, my disappointment turned to (slight) joy. Good thing that I have this Excel file monitoring my lipid test results. Comparing my recent blood test results with my Oct 2011 tests, it seems that (except for my HDL) the readings have improved dramatically! Take a look at the table below:



Now the readings are still way above my target so I need to keep this up (calorie-counting), especially now that I've 3 weeks to normalize these readings. Hopefully by then, I've lost more weight and have a better lipid profile result.

Wish me luck!

My Bosses

This post has been long overdue. I started working immediately after college last 1995 and have gone thru 5 companies since then. It's time for me to share with you my different bosses that I've been under. Here they are in chronological order:

1. Lucas (1995-1998). Belgian, white curly hair, tall but stout, he could've been the inspiration for Angry Birds. He's very adept with computer programming and handling of switching systems but he can be happy one minute and then bursting with anger in the next. I recall one time (or was it several times?) when he threw his cellphone (the then top-of-the-line Motorola Microtac) against the wall out of disgust simply because he couldn’t get a clear signal.



He loves ordering the Jollibee Aloha Burger when we would work in Talisay, Batangas. He lived in Ayala Alabang, where his driver gets the day off upon reaching the village entrance. Be wary when he drives for he seemed to exceed village speed limits with gusto.

2. Dennis/Ghie/Lila/Yap (1998-2001). My experience working for company #2 could be summarized as 90% great, 10% disastrous. The bosses have been very kind throughout my stay there and, most of them being Filipinos, there was a sync in terms of sense of humor and communication. Unfortunately, my last month proved disappointing as I didn’t get the support and trust that I expected from them.

3. Ilari (2001-2002). As I was only a contract employee here, my boss at company #3 entrusted me to work at my own “diskarte” and it went well. We really didn’t have much time to interact since I only stayed here for 4.5 months, but I could say that working under him was quite ok.

4. Hong/Venka/Lee (2002-2006). Working for different bosses in different eras while in company #4 was a learning experience. One didn’t know where to put me, the other would occasionally chat with me on almost all things aside from work, while the third really put me into the grind of things so to speak (in a good, learning way). With the exception of Lucas, a foreigner boss does not include personality issues (although Malaysians seem to like my shallow sense of joke-telling, hehehe).



You may be wondering where are the bosses in my current company. Well, I’m sorry since I cannot tell much about them right now since I’m still here.

Maybe if I venture into another company (which could be unlikely), I’d be able to post about them.

Btw, is it true that the number one reason why people resign from a company is because of their boss?

Microwaveable Popcorn

I was having lunch yesterday at Charlie's Burger in Ortigas (delicious burger btw) when the music in the restaurant played early 2000 music, particularly Matchbox 20 and Third Eye Blind. I was suddenly brought back in time when I worked in Singapore.

When evening came I frantically searched the other bedroom like a mad pirate searching for treasure. I was afraid that it got lost (or given away) when the house was being renovated. Finally, inside a plain white plastic bag at the upper rightmost section of the cabinet, I found it.

There it was.

My Minidisc player.

I bought it in Sim Lim Singapore back in 2001 when I worked there. I immediately looked for that prized minidisc. I labeled it back then so that I won't forget: Microwaveable Popcorn Live in Singapore, Dec. 20, 2001.

Listening to it brought me back to a time when, believe it or not, I was playing guitar for a 3-man band led by long-time schoolmate Cyrel who provided vocals and bass guitar. Joenil completed our small gang with his perfect drum playing. Together, we were the Microwaveable Popcorn.

It was great to listen to the songs we recorded in one of the studios there in Singapore. I was away from my family and the missus (who was then my girlfriend) so the band was a welcome release from being homesick. I felt that, even though we were just confined to playing in the studios, I was a rock star with my Fender Squire Strat and ZOOM guitar effect gadget.

After the MD finished playing, I put in my "Unplugged" MD. Then, when Grohl's Foo Fighters played "Times Like These," I remembered how much I loved listening (and playing) to these songs.

It was like 2001 all over again.

RealShip - Valentine's Day Cruise

When the missus and I started going out years ago, we experienced hopping onto one of those Manila Bay tour boats docked in the CCP area. For P50.00 per head, we were able to go around the bay and watched the sunset. It was one of those spur of the moment rides that we still fondly recall even today.

Fast forward to 2012, happily married and with two children, the missus and I have found a perfect and upgraded version of that tour boat, which we've made to a tradition for 3 of the past 4 Valentine's days.

Realship, with offices in the CCP docking area, came up with an ingenious way for couples to celebrate Valentine's Day. An intimate ship cruise with a 5-course meal.

This year, food was handled by Bizu, which we could say was very delicious (read: 10 HOUR ROASTED US BEEF on the main course!).



Aside from the food, the cruise is the one that sets this dinner apart. The ship sails from the CCP dock to the coastlines along Roxas blvd (near H2O Hotel) and up to MOA and back.

With a piano and violin duet, the sunset and Manila skyline as the backdrop, this Valentine's day dinner is definitely something that the missus and I will come back to every year.

Weight-Loss Update: Closer to the Goal!

This is just a quick post to let you know that, after 2 years of trying to put my weight below 165lbs, I've finally achieved some momentum.

The weighing scale this morning showed me wonderful news: 161lbs!

I've lost 4lbs!

I've finally solved the 2-year riddle of my stagnant progress of weight loss. Although I'm religiously running 3-4x a week, my eating habits stayed the same. Sometimes, I've even made it as an excuse by eating more if I ran in the morning. So weight loss was never achieved. I just maintained at 165lbs which was STILL classified as overweight for my height and BMI.


MYFITNESSPAL



In the last week of December 2011, I was encouraged by an officemate (who's also in a weight situation) to try counting calories with myfitnesspal, an online app that you can install on almost any device (android, iTouch, iPhone) and can be accessed on your PC (www.myfitnesspal.com). I heard about my sister-in-law calorie-counting some years ago and it worked for her while another officemate lost a lot of weight by calorie-counting too.

So, with high expectations and a prayer, I installed the app on my android.


THE FIRST FEW DAYS

Like starting a would-be habit, it was a challenge for the first few days. Keying in the food, and I mean EVERY food that passed thru my mouth was a task on its own. I set my goal to lose 1-lb per week, which meant keeping a daily limit of 1,490 calories. This was noticeably difficult as I would often see 2500 to even as high as 3,300 calories on one day! The app even gives a preview 5 weeks from now after you complete a daily entry. So seeing a weight gain or no loss at all in that 5 week preview was a scare.

Slowly, I started to manage my food intake, taking care not to exceed 1,490 per day. In the days that I'm running, the calorie burn helped a lot in giving me buffer to eat more. But it's still a challenge (a "daily struggle" to quote my officemate) on those days that have no exercise. Do note that I still exceed 1,490 calories on non-running days but not as high as when I started this habit.

Well, the office has conducted a BiggestLoser II contest again with the final weigh-in on March 4. The prize is a cool P12,800.00 cash, so that's really motivating me now to get the weight loss going.

My original goal 3 years ago was to go down to 152lbs which is the upper limit of my normal BMI range. With calorie-counting and myfitnesspal, I think I'm closer to that goal now than I've ever been before.

I hope my next weight-loss blog reads: "152lbs....FINALLY!"

Baguio...Again

My post-birthday vacation was celebrated in cool Baguio City with my family last weekend. It’s been part of my family’s vacation-venue rotations, along with Tagaytay, Laiya, and Subic, alternating venues from time to time (or whenever a long weekend is coming up).

The boys had a great time, particularly becoming “suki” to Wright Park’s horses. Matteo was amazingly calm throughout his two horse rides. There was even a point when the missus was about to fall off the horse (while she was trying to get off) but cute Matteo was indifferent throughout the awkward moment.

Lucas had finally got rid of his fear of horses (he was scared when he first had a personal encounter in his first trip to Baguio, at Minesview) as he enjoyed the ride as well.

For P200.00 per 30 minutes, the smile on both of their faces on the car ride back to the hotel was priceless.

The missus and I have been discussing and may have decided into, this is tentative right now, retiring in Baguio. Probably buy a house, renovate it, and spend the rest of our golden years there. The boys, and their respective families, can visit us from time to time of course. We could still earn money by playing on the stock market. Yup, the missus and I have fallen helplessly in love with Baguio City.

But for now, future Baguio City weekends will be spent at The Manor as per strict instruction from Lucas.



Man, I miss the malunggay tea already!!!

Being Hit By A Brick

Today, the world is saddened by the death of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. His creativity had helped evolve the way we digest digital information as it is now.

He will forever be missed.

Going thru the FB posts and Twitter tweets, I came along this video of him giving a commencement speech at Stanford University last 2005.

His 1st and 2nd stories particularly reminded me of a similar downward personal event in 2000 that somehow helped me to become successful as I am today. Though unlike Jobs wherein he made a decision on his own (1st story), that particular event in my life "hit me like a brick" out of nowhere and I had to make a decision then and there on whether to pick myself up and move on.

Looking back at that event, I'm glad that it happened and came to where I am now. As Steve Jobs said, it was impossible to connect the dots at the time, but it is clear to me as I look back at it now.

Biggest Loser

Our office department's version of the Biggest Loser contest just ended this morning. Even with my persisent running regimen, I finished last, losing only 4lbs since Jun 22, even gained 0.8lbs since July 5. This just means that exercise alone will not solve my weight problems. Diet has to come in. Now.

Forget about the P500.00 bet that I lost. It's really time to shape up, especially since my goal is to see my kids grow up, and, if I'm lucky, see my grandchildren as well. I want me and wife to go around the world when we're old, too, so that should pretty much motivate me to get this thing going.

My target in dailymile.com is to have a weight below 160lbs by end of 2011. I'm now at 165lbs based on the bathroom scale.

Let's see how I'll do by December.

Wish me luck!

Copper and Wool

To my wife,

There's this phrase called "the 7 year itch" that says relationships need to be reevaluated once it reaches 7 years. I guess our relationship is an exclusion to that since we still can't get enough of each other, even after two wonderful kids.

Yes, I'm still madly in love with you.

A Better Way?

Lately I've been wondering if there's a better way on how to earn money. Yes, my current job pays me well, but spending 10 hours a day reporting for work has made me impatient for money to arrive. There are bills and loans to pay, and there's so many places out there that me and my family can travel to for a vacation.

Bill Gates. Mark Zuckerberg. Dorsey and Stone. They all got it made. All they did was just to come up with this very unique and sellable idea, and the money just comes in.

There has to be better way, don't you think?

Lenten Sacrifice 2011

Once again, it's Lent. It's time for sacrifice, alms-giving, and abstaining. I'm trying to refrain from FB, Twitter (yup that's why I'm unusually quiet on the social network scene), and softdrinks, same as last year although I've been struggling with Coke these past few days.

I hope to do better before Easter Sunday.

And Then There Was Music...

After years of sitting idly in my parents' house, my acoustic guitar is back in my arms. Blame it on @GTWMpodcast sensation @johnoydanao and his superb guitar-playing that made me want to resurrect my musical career(?).

Well, after getting 4 songs from the internet (tabs and chords), I was able to strum tonight after the kids went off to bed. I was only able to do 3 out of 4 since Honestly (Acoustic version) by Harem Scarem is a killer piece. I hope to complete that song in the days to come.

The ones I believe I nailed were Collide (Howie Day), Crash Into Me (Dave Matthews Band), and Northern Sky (Nick Drake).

Whew! I guess it's like riding a bicycle again. Still, I feel a bit rusty. Maybe in time I'll get the hang of it again.

The Taxi Driver Syndrome

Sometimes I just smile in amazement whenever someone in the office just comes to my work area and starts blabbering about anything under the sun.

"Why me?" I'd often ask myself. I'm sitting here working (or web surfing) in peaceful solitude but all of that will be disturbed by these officemates who think that I'm sort of a Guidance Counselor of some sort.

They think I'm interested in what they're talking about but what I'm really thinking is when can they finish that pointless story in their life and let me go back to what I was doing?

My AVP-officemate has coined it simply as The Taxi Driver Syndrome (TTDS). The reference to taxi drivers is uncanny, since they'd often sit in the car all day with no one to talk to. Their excitement over the latest AM radio news or whatever they've read in the newspaper gets bottled up, until the next listener-looking passenger flags their vehicle. Poor passenger now has to contend with listening to the driver's story as they ply their way over the metro to his place of destination.

Yes, here in the office, it seems that I'm that poor passenger for some of the time. Maybe I should put a sign on my cubicle wall that says "Guidance Counselor is OUT" or "P100.00 per hour to listen to your sob story or whatever it is you want to talk about."

The Taxi Driver Syndrome is not applicable to social networking sites like FB or Twitter since you have ALLOWED yourself by being their FB-friend or Twitter-follower to read about the goings-on in their lives. But should current officemates be included in such social-circles?

Hmmmm, I'm now pondering on removing current officemates from my FB/Twitter account. It doesn't look good if they catch me with TTDS.

The kids last 2010 (Part 2 of 2)

Matteo

Matteo had learned to walk early, even before his 1st birthday. This shows how physically-advanced he is. He has a kiddie basketball ring and, make no buts about it, he has a good pulse for shooting the hoop. I hope the recessive height-gene in the Gaerlan family is in Matteo's DNA coz he has a very good potential in making the UAAP or even the PBA!

He likes his morning pancit canton, macaroni, and of course his dede. His "siksik" build can make the grumpiest guy smile and make him wanna pinch Matteo's nakakagigil thighs.

He says "thank you" or "tenks!" automatically whenever you hand him his dede although the missus has always been his favorite target for "dede pleeeeease!" opportunitues. It may sound irritating, but it never fails to elicit a smile from the missus. Matteo always gets his dede one way or another.

He is a very curious guy, always looking under the cars in our garage if the neighborhood cat is there. If it is, then he picks up two small stones and aims for the poor fella. He runs back to Dad with a mischievous laugh knowing that he has disturbed once again the cat's peaceful siesta.

He idolizes his Kuya Lucas so much so that he copies everything that Lucas says. He also likes Thomas The Train much to the chagrin of Lucas since "Mr Destroyer" remodels the train tracks that Lucas has already setup. But I know that Matteo just wants to help.

His favorite shows are Umizoomi and Dora. You can help but cheer for the poor guy as he yells out to Dora and Umizoomi when they ask the kids watching the shoe a question since Matteo often answers wrongly. He always answers "blue!" with every color question and then "two!" for every number question. Yup, the missus and I have a long way to go in teaching Matteo pre-preschool.

Lastly, Matteo is very friendly. He can walk towards a stranger and make his signature wave and say "hi!" in the cutest way you can imagine. I think this guy will have a good future in politics.

The kids last 2010 (Part 1 of 2)

You may have seen my kids' blog, About Two Boys, which I try to update with pictures and videos as much as I can. Such is the role of a parent, trying to capture every possible "Kodak moment" to serve as keepsakes in case my sons would like to look back at their youth years from now.

But words are limited to blog-titles there so this blog would be a good place to put in my view on how Lucas (4) and Matteo (turning 2 on Jan3) were in 2010.

Lucas

Lucas, at 4, may have finally overcome his terrible-two/three stage. School has helped him a lot, enabling him to socialize with kids his age outside of the house. He's a big fan of Michael Jackson, EXACTLY copying each and every dance move that the late Moonwalker has done as seen in YouTube videos. We haven't told him that Michael has passed away more than a year now, but I think he'll realize it once he matures later on.

He's a DIE HARD fan of Thomas The Tank Engine (and Friends). As of this blog post, he has a total of 15(!) character-trains (excluding 2 duplicates), 2 character-air-vehicles, 7 character-road-vehicles, 3 bridges, 3 tunnels, an airport, a helipad, and countless blue tracks to setup his town. He's very intelligent for a 4-year old since he makes complicated track setups on his own! He also watches a lot of YouTube videos on other Thomas and Friends track setups made by other children around the world. It would be safe to assume that Thomas and Friends is his most favorite past time as of this moment.

The missus and I were glad that he may have finally overcome his "don't wanna eat" stage. It may have started since the inception of Santa-will-only-give-gifts-to-good-boys to him. This should include eating good (nutritious) food so it's been nice to see him finish a plateful of rice and ulam more often than when he was 2 or 3 years old. Since December, he's been extra malambing, hugging and kissing us from time to time.

As they'd say, kids say the funniest things. Yes, Lucas is included. Here are some examples:

While toweling him off after a bath he asked, "Daddy, did you also have a yaya?"

"Yes," I said.

"What was her name?"

"Yaya Flor," I replied.

"What did she look like?"

"She was dark," I said.

"Dark like you?" he said. The missus, overhearing our conversation, laughed out loud.

We were all in the room when Lucas said, "Daddy, I will call you Mister Runner!"

"How about Mommy?" I asked.

"Mmmmm.....she's Ms. Take A Bath!"

Yup, he's a very smart kid.

Next post: Matteo...

A Seed Has Been Planted

Basketball has been dominating the Philippine landscape for decades. Thanks to the visiting Americans during WW2 and the special attention it got since the PBA, our very own professional league was conceptualized. Every teenager wanted to be a Mon Fernandez, or Guidaben, or Patrimonio, or Jolas, and of course, a Jaworski. The streets would be lined up of makeshift basketball rings/courts and playing 3-on-3 with the neighbors was delightful.

As a skinny teenager I would often be left out of the intramural basketball team. Height and heft was needed coupled with a must in basketball skills. Sadly, I was never one of those hand-picked by our Captain Ball to join the team. I played basketball but basketball didn't seem to like me.

That was when football came to my rescue. It turned out that I was very good at it, eventually making it to the school varsity team in 3rd year high school. I resumed playing in 1st and 2nd year college and even after I graduated. It was enjoyable to play the world's most popular game.

But then, it was all just that. After high school or college there were no offers from big league football clubs nor continuing programs that were available for landing a pro or even a semi-pro contract. The fact was that football is not our sport. Basketball is. There were rumors of corruption along the PFF ranks then, with every PFF President taking turns in pocketing the country's budget for football despite how measly it was. No one can really confirm those rumors but it may have been true since there was nothing stellar that came out of the PFF except for the 1995 SEA games when the whole Rizal Stadium celebrated when we drew against Malaysia.

Yes, we celebrated, i.e. danced on the football field when the final whistle sounded ---over a draw.

That time, to many of us school footballers, the competitive play ends in school. The Philippine team was mostly reserved for the great players from Visayas or Mindanao which I consider as the bedlam of Philippine football. Office leagues are mainly for basketball and volleyball only. Football was never in the spotlight, except of course, when the World Cup was in season and many of those half-baked Filipino fans just want to get a share of the action. Once the World Cup ends, the excitement of these fans dies with it.

Fast forward to 2010, a resurgence in the form of the AZKALS, the Philippine football team sent to the AFF Suzuki Cup, has awakened the minds of the basketball/boxing-crazed Filipino. The draws against powerhouse Singapore and Myanmar, and that unforgettable 2-0 beating unleashed to Vietnam in the group stages, had made me believe that somehow, Azkals football has bitten the minds of its people that football IS really the way to go.

They put up a valiant effort in the away and away semifinal legs (not home and away since there was no home football field available that met the AFF's standard; FIFA might've said the same way) versus football-crazy Indonesia. The score on both legs was 0-1 which is highly-respectable. Obviously, the Azkals defense was relentless inspite of the stadium filled to to the brim of Indonesians jeering and booing at every Azkals play.

They end the AFF Suzuki Cup campaign not in defeat for I believe that they've accomplished something far better and that is to wake up the basketball-drugged Filipino and say that "HEY! We CAN be football greats if we want it to be!"

I sincerely hope that the PSC or the PFF takes notice of this great achievement. Let it not remain a brief spark. I ask that the PSC/PFF keeps the light of football alive in our country since the Azkals have made the other SEA countries respect Filipino football. Scores of 0-13, 0-10 against us could be a thing of the past if the right support is given over these lads and future players that can represent us in upcoming inter-country meets.

And, who knows, we might finally get our place in the World Cup Finals. Maybe not in my lifetime, but I hope and dream that we'll get to that place someday.

Impossible you say? Try saying that to the Azkals.