By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
The La Trinidad tourism summit held recently was actually a step towards the right direction. You have to salute the organizers for starting it, never mind the shortcomings. As I said last week the book, La Trindad: Valley of Colors was distributed free of charge during the summit. It is a very good book really for local tourism. It contains the local tourism development plans. If only half of what is recommended in it is answered, then LT tourism will definitely fly. Its time to roll up sleeves and begin shoveling.
This is an unsolicited advice. The appended Tourism Act of 2009 and the Farm Tourism Development Act of 2016 should not just be used as references. It must be studied carefully in order to plan accordingly and for practical purposes. Comb it, it might lead to a treasure trove of fund elsewhere.
A no nonsense, committed tourism council made up of interested individuals, private individuals or otherwise, should be clothed with the necessary administrative support, not the rhetoric type, so it could function as it is envisioned.
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While the Rio Olympics were on-going, there was another world sporting event simultaneously taking place in Bhubaneswar, India. It was the World Junior Chess Championships for boys and girls where we sent two female and two male woodpushers. It was participated in by the best under 20 players from around the world.
Our female players were Janelle Mae Frayna and Shania Mae Mendoza. Our male chessers were Paulo Bersamina and Paul Robert Evangelista. The four are considered our brightest young players today and therefore the future of local chess.
The championships, separate for boys and girls, went 13 rounds. Up to the 10th round, Frayna was joint or sole leader which says a lot of her talent and abilities as a chess player. Disaster struck in the 11th and 12th rounds when she lost 2 successive games effectively halting her championship aspiration. She almost won it all. She settled for 4th place out of 57 participants. On the boys’ side, Bersamina bolted into title contention when he won 3 consecutive games in the middle rounds. He eventually tied for 14th-27th place out of 80 players. These exploits were almost totally ignored by Philippine newspapers, concentrating instead on the performance of athletes from other countries, or the futile attempts of our gallant but mismatched Olympic athletes.
The practically news blackout of the chess championship is a sad commentary of our misdirected sports priorities. It definitely also shows the utter lack of attention, appreciation, and commitment of our chess officials running the affairs of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines. Why, NCFP could have arranged for an up-to-date news feeding to the local papers so people could have cheered or even offered prayers to our embattled chess players. Who knows what could have been the effect.
Chess is one sport where we could definitely excel internationally, with relatively very little funding required. In fact, we have lorded it over in Asia for decades until China and India decided to wake up. They are out of reach at the moment. Even Vietnam is now way ahead of us. If one looks at the current officials of the NCFP, something stares at you with stark “un-reality”. Many are lawyers, and politicians. Don’t wonder why local chess had retrogressed! Enough of active politicians masquerading as sports leaders. With them at the helm, the name of the game could be shame.
If Frayna won the girl’s championship, it would have been the first world title of any local chess player. And it would have meant so much for the resurgence of chess in the country. It would have provided a clear, unmistakable model for our youth to follow.
Another very big chess event that coincided with the Olympics is a star-studded tourney in St. Louis, USA. It was so strong, it included eight of the top ten leading chess players in the world as participants. The event was the prestigious Sinquefield Cup. And the winner is grandmaster Wesley So, a Filipino grandmaster, who is now representing the USA. What a shame. He is the same chess player that was lambasted by the president of NCFP, and denied what was due him for winning the Universiade chess title a couple of years back. Its another evidence that our chess officials should abandon their self-serving “god” attitude.
Wesley had won so many strong chess tournaments in the name of the Philippines, and more recently, the USA. This was the biggest triumph so far by So in the highest league. One can only nod in agreement when he said: “I am living a dream”. I hope that the next leadership of the NCFP will do much better in protecting its players’ welfare, promoting chess itself, and understanding what their position calls for. Then, chess players could also live their own dreams.**
