ILOILO CITY – Like a
biblical prodigal son, former World Boxing Federation (now Foundation)
welterweight titlist William “The Black Mamba” Magahin, has reunited
with his estranged foster father, Roland, here and is now itching to
stage a comeback in the ring after a 10-year hiatus.
“This time, it’s for
real,” vowed Roland, 48, who admitted he has accepted back to his fold
his 35-year-old adopted son, once the toast of boxing community for
sending to retirement the famed ex-WBC superfeatherweight king Rolando
Navarette via six-round disposal in a non-title tiff at the Araneta
Coliseum in 1994.
“I would like to
confirm that William (Magahin) has returned (in Iloilo City) and he
will soon be back in the ring,” said Roland, who acted as the black
mestizo’s registered manager when the pugilist turned professional in
1989 with a first round demolition of Noel Togana in a four-round
aperitif in Mandaluyong City.
Criminal records
Roland said he
accepted back his felonious ward on condition that he would totally
discard his criminal activities and vices.
Magahin (18-6-1, 14
KOs), who never met his biological father – an American sailor
stationed in Olongapo City in the 60’s – is fresh from a nearly
three-year stint as inmate at the Quezon City jail for robbery-holdup.
He promised to “make
the best of my remaining youthful years” to win another world title
despite his admission last year that he used drugs even before being
annihilated in the 10th round by Mexican-American Jaime Lerma in a WBF
title defense which also served as his farewell fight in 1996 at the
Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Magahin admitted he
“sought refuge” to drugs after his wife, a bank employee in Manila,
junked him for another man. Their son is now in high school.
After quitting from
the ring, Magahin left Roland to live in the underworld. He and his
gang eked out a living by robbing taxis and doing other abhorrent
crimes that eventually brought him behind bars.
Visit from WBF chief
When WBF President
Mick Croucher and this writer visited him inside his detention cell
and offered to bail him out on
August 3, 2003, the 5 feet and 10 inches quarterfinalist in the 1984
World Junior Amateur Boxing Championship in
Havana, Cuba, broke in
tears.
An attempt to bail him
out for P14,000 (Croucher withdrew the cash from Equitable-PCI Bank
ATM machine in Ermita,
Manila) was foiled after
Manila promoter Gabriel “Bebot” Elorde, Jr. returned Croucher’s
money saying “he deserved to remain inside the jail for being a menace
in the society.”
The Games and
Amusement Board (GAB) chaired by Eric Buhain recently passed a
resolution awarding the penniless Ilonggo boxer P10,000 to be taken
from the agency’s welfare fund.
Recognition
GAB also awarded
Magahin with a plaque of recognition in absentia during the 1st GAB
Convention in Manila in April this year together with other Filipino
former world boxing champions.
The plaque will be
sent to Magahin’s residence in Bo. Obrero,
Iloilo City
now that he has been located, said GAB Commissioner Alex Paglumotan
during a recent visit in Iloilo City.
Aside from the WBF
diadem which Magahin grabbed from Jeff Malcolm on March 25, 1995 at
the Iloilo Sports Complex here, the black fighter also once held the
Philippine Boxing Federation (PBF) 140-lbs crown.
In 1993, he traveled
to Tokyo and was bombed out in five rounds in a non-title duel by
Tokyo Santa otherwise known as Miguel Angel Gonzales, the future WBC
champion who terrorized the lightweight division vacated by the great
Julio Caesar Chavez.
“He is still in
excellent physical shape and I am confident he can still win a world
championship despite his age,” said Roland. “That’s his promise to
me.”
1-2-3 of Filipino in Mount Everest
inspire Visayas climbers
CEBU CITY –
The success of the three Philippine adventurers in scaling the summit
of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak which stands at 29, 039
feet, inspires the entire Filipinos, particularly the local
mountaineering populace in the countrywide.
In random interviews
to local climbers in Eastern Visayas, the victory of the three
Filipino mountaineers, two of them, members of the First Philippine
Mount Everest Expedition Team, were considered by them as an
“achievement” of the entire nation.
Atty. Bruce Ragas, a
climber and caver based in this city said the successful climb of the
trio is again a triumph of human’s will to hurdle hardship no matter
how hard the obstacle (is).
“It was doubly hard
for the three Pinoys because coming from a tropical country, they need
to harness their skills to the demand of alpine condition,” Ragas
said.
“They (do) not only
put the (Philippine) flag at the Everest peak, (but) they also put our
country in the attention of global mountaineering. It also gives boost
to our local mountaineering activity that surely would leap to a more
professional level,” he added.
Sandro I. Almasco, a
climber in Catarman, Northern Samar also contributed same observation
with Ragas saying the “three Philippine eagles” has put a big mark in
the international history of mountaineering.
“The success of the
Filipino mountaineers (in
Nepal)
raises a high respect from international community and elevated us
(instantly) to a pedestal where Hillary and Norgay seats (in 1953),”
Almasco said in his statement sent to this writer Thursday.
Jean Orsolino, another
climber from Las Navas, Northern Samar, said: “Climbing Everest has
formally introduced the Filipino people to the extreme world of
mountaineering.”
“The feat of Oracion,
Emata and Garduce has earned mountaineering such esteem and respect.
But the sports if it can be called as such must be viewed not as a
competition with others but with one self,” Orsolino added.
Rommel Rutor,
co-author of the Centro Outdoor Sports Unlimited based in Catbalogan,
Samar shared, and “It’s an every mountaineers dream. I would be a
hypocrite if I am not dreaming of becoming one of those who
successfully climb it, and raise the seal of Samar as the first
Samareño to reach the top of the world.”
“I just wish that the
provincial government of Samar is that keen in supporting outdoor
adventures (because) it’s the only way we can put Samar on the
adventure map of Philippine tourism. Samar is number one on that
aspect, but without the proper support from the local government unit,
it will remain a dream for life,” Rutor, who was consistently
commissioned by the province of Samar to promote tourism, said.
In Cebu City, one
Glenda Bantang, president of the Elite Mountaineering Society (an
association of at least 15 mountaineering groups in the entire
Cebu) has also
issued their statement relative to the successful conquest. A part of
their statement said: “It proves that we Filipinos are internationally
competitive in extreme sports. Our problem is that our government
won’t support our athletes unless they’ve succeed, unlike in other
countries.”
Oscar Melkie,
president of the Baktasi Adventures in
Northern Samar also said that the successful conquest of the Filipino
climbers inspired us all. “It’s a show of Filipino excellence. We feel
honored being a Filipino, but not our being colonial mentality when
two networks competed for this cause,” he said.
Meanwhile, the rest of
other climbers in the country including the President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
congratulated the three ‘historic’ climbers.
According to Arturo
Valdez, leader of the ABS-CBN backed expedition team, Oracion arrived
at the Everest summit around 0730 GMT (5:30 p.m. in the
Philippines; 3:30 p.m.
in Nepal).
He said Oracion was
with a group of Swiss and Korean climbers who also made the summit,
and that the group spent some time waiting to stand on the 8,850
meters (29,035 feet) summit due to a “traffic jam'’ created by about
20 climbers at the Hillary Step.
The step is the last
major hurdle along the Nepalese southern route up the world's highest
mountain, which straddles the border with China. Another Expedition
member, Emata, arrived atop the mountain the following day, and a
third, Garduce, followed shortly afterward.
“For mountaineers,
that's the Holy Grail,” said Reggie Pablo, a leader of the Oracion's
support group in Manila. “For the Philippine Everest team, it's more
of a call for unity and teamwork for this country. We'd like to tell
our people, send a message, that we can do the impossible if we put
our acts together and work as a team.”
The Everest climb
pitted the Philippines' largest television networks in a race against
each other - ABS-CBN television is a major supporter of Oracion's
team, while GMA7 television backs Garduce, a system analyst and member
of the UP Mountaineers.
The networks have been
airing regular reports on the progress of their respective teams since
they left for Nepal early this year.
Garduce climbed some
of the world's highest peaks, including
Mount Kilimanjaro in
Tanzania, Aconcagua in
Argentina and Cho Oyu, the world's sixth-highest mountain, just west
of Mount Everest while Oracion and Emata reached the summit of the
7,546-meter (24,757-foot) Muztagh Ata in Western Xinjiang, China in
August 2005.
QUEDANCOR’s loan
repayment hits 90 percent
By ELI C. DALUMPINES, PIA
Samar
May 26, 2006
CATBALOGAN, Samar –
Clients who have contracted loans with QUEDAN and Rural Credit
Guarantee Corporation have a high repayment rate, QUEDANCOR’s Eriberto
M. Suyom informed in a radio interview over DYMS Aksyon Radyo Thursday
morning.
Suyom, who is the
District Supervisor of QUEDANCOR’s Calbayog District Office, disclosed
that their clienteles’ loan repayment reached 90%, contrary to what
the public has expected.
Earlier, credit
institutions who ventured with this kind of services, including
government banks, aired their sad experiences with the borrowers who,
in the most cases, forgot their responsibility of paying their debts
right after borrowing. This, they blamed to the people’s lingering
‘dole-out mentality’.
Suyom said they do not
encounter much difficulty when it comes to loan repayments since most
of their clients are religiously paying their loans, except in cases
like typhoons or other calamities where those who engaged in
agri-business are likely to suffer.
However, in cases like
these, QUEDANCOR is willing to relax the payment terms with those who
are affected until such time that they have already recovered with
their loses, he stressed.
“We even grant
re-loans to our clients who are victims of calamities so that they
will have the opportunity to recover,” the QUEDANCOR official
informed.
According to Suyom,
‘the dole-out mentality’ of Samareños is now slowly eroding as
evidenced by this high percentage of loan repayment.
QUEDANCOR extends to
each client a maximum of P50,000 but he is required to submit a
project proposal of the business he is planning to put up with. Suyom,
however, said his office is willing to assist their clients in making
project proposals.
Samar scholars receive
allowances from CHED, solon
By RICKY J. BAUTISTA
May 25, 2006
CATBALOGAN, Samar – The first batch of college scholars, in which expenses in college are
being shouldered by the government and private benefactors, received
their regular allowances on Saturday, May 20, this year.
At least 50 out of
more than 200 scholars under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
special study grant program in the second district of this province
received Saturday morning their regular P1, 500 allowances.
Rep. Catalino Figueroa
(2nd district – Samar) personally handed over checks to the first,
second and third year college students enrolled at the Samar State
University (SSU) in the school year 2005-2006. However, allowances of
the ten fourth year college students of the same university, is yet to
be released as it was still being readied nowadays, it was learned.
Marilyn A. Mabingnay,
assistant head of the second district congressional office, who
assisted Congressman Figueroa in distributing the checks, informed
that aside from the CHED scholars, the solon also financed 10 more
first year college students, in which expenses were taken under his
own coffer.
In handing out the
allowances, Figueroa inspired the students to study hard citing
himself as example. He said that he himself indulged to different hard
work while he was studying and he finally succeeded in his chosen
field.
"You should study
hard, so that someday you may be able to help your family and this
suffering country. Young ones like you is the real hope of the next
generation," the solon said.
Meanwhile, Mabingnay
said that aside from that 70 scholars enrolled this year, the solon’s
office and his wife Neliphta, the current mayor of Zumarraga and
concurrently the president of Samar’s Mayor’s League of the
Philippines are now processing the more than 100 scholars under the
CHED scholarship program and the 70 students shouldered by the couple
in the next school year 2006-2007.
It was also learned
that the congressional office located in Brgy. Mercedes, Catbalogan is
still accepting scholars provided that the applicant has an 85 percent
grade in high school and must come from an indigent family.
Those lucky scholars
were free from all expenses including their board and lodging, books,
and monthly allowances while studying in state colleges and
universities anywhere they wish to study.
Yamaha tour
participants find Samar road ‘exciting’
By ELI C. DALUMPINES, PIA-Samar
May 22, 2006
CATBALOGAN, Samar –
“It’s tough but it’s challenging”.
