Year that was

The victorious Filipino athletes who copped only their second overall championship in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games would easily qualify for any award honoring individual or group achievements in the year about to end.

Collectively, in fact, the national athletes are shoo-ins to clinch the Athletes of the Year Award from the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA), the oldest media organization in the country composed of all the editors and sports scribes from the country’s leading broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. It was no ordinary feat, although the Nationals’ wings got aided by the wind coming from the hosting chore — managed by a private entity that was led by a top government official — that was very controversial from the start.

The management of the hosting affair, and the subsequent probe on its expenses and other excesses by its officials notwithstanding, the athletes’ performance should not go unnoticed.

Host countries of the SEA Games get favorable aid from the SEA Games Federation in terms of the number of choice events where the hosts are likely to succeed. So, the Philippines had a foot on the overall crown when it first declared its intention to host the biennial The overall championship, however, took so long in coming.

The Philippines waited 14 years to make it happen.

In 2005, the country’s top athletes won their first overall crown in a convincing fashion that made this year’s SEA Games drive quite harder and tougher for the new batch of Nationals.

The Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), however, stepped up in sending the top athletes to foreign trainings and exposures which prepared them for the clinching of the crown.

The PSC had spent more than P1 billion for that. The amount is independent of the P6 billion that the government allocated to the Phisgoc (Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee) and its equivalent Phisgoc Foundation which only duplicated the original Phisgoc’s tasks.

The success of the athletes was spawned by the training program designed by the PSC, under the leadership of chairman William I. Ramirez, who coincidentally was also the chief of mission of Team Philippines in 2005.

He reprised that role in the recent SEA Games and again led Team Philippines to a second overall crown.

The other big news worthy of our praises was the conviction of the prime suspects in the Ampatuan massacre of 58 people, including 32 journalists who accompanied the convoy of Esmael Mangundadatu’s wife and relatives in filing his certificate of candidacy for the gubernatorial slot of Maguindanao in 2019. It took a decade before Quezon City Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes — the judge with the balls — handed proper judgment on several of the accused by declaring them as guilty of the carnage.

Twenty-eight of the 99 individuals charged in connection to the massacre were convicted as guilty. Fifteen were sentenced to a lesser offense. Fifty-six were acquitted.

Among those guilty were the Ampatuan brothers Zaldy, Datu Andal Jr., and Anwar Sr, along with their nephews Anwar Jr. and Anwar Sajid.They were among the powerful and untouchables of Maguindanao until the massacre of the members of the family of their political rivals transpired.

The midterm elections last May also saw the rise of new faces in politics. The Senate has new lawmakers in Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa.

Their senatorial slots were driven mostly by the votes that catapulted former Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to the presidency in 2016. Some local government units also saw big surprises.

Manila has a new city mayor in Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, the former actor and city vice mayor who toppled former president and two-term Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada. His victory was no mean feat as any official seeking a third term is But Yorme did the unthinkable in booting Erap out of City Hall.

Vico Sotto was also a revelation in Pasig.

A first-termer city council member, Sotto braved the strong political front of Bobby Eusebio, whose name was considered as well-entrenched in the curbsides of the city. Sotto won convincingly, and he seems to be doing very well on issues no ordinary politicians would touch.

It was a good year in general.

There were a lot of things to celebrate as there are a lot more needing our push to change.

But we could be hopeful for the new year. Yes, we should.