Coo vows to push for more sports events for women

By Randy Caluag

AFTER watching women paraathletes push themselves to their limits in the recent Sports Obstacle competition, Philippine Sports Commissioner Bong Coo vowed to push for more sports events for physically-challenged women.

“We want to empower our women, especially para-athletes,” said Coo at the Women in Uniform Obstacle Sports at Bridgetown in Pasig City.

The event was participated in by women athletes from different professions like education and medical field, as well as government enforce- ment agencies such as the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police and the Philippine Air Force. a 5-1 stopping of Kuwait proved that the Filipinos are ready to move up to a higher division.

“I’m very happy that more women are joining sports activities like these. We will continue to innovate and help our country produce more champion athletes on the global stage” added Coo.

Coo, who was the first PSC commissioner to be appointed by President Bongbong Marcos, has just finished several projects centering on women’s empowerment such as the Women’s Martial Arts Festival, Media Seminar for Women Athletes, and most recently, the Rubilen Amit Cup.

The world bowling Hall of Famer is tasked by the PSC to promote Women’s Sports. She will be holding more events, in coordination with the Philippine Women’s Commission, in the provinces of Ifugao, Cagayan de Oro, and Palawan.

That’s aside from handling 22 National Sports Associations under her care, most of which are preparing for the Southeast Asian Games.

“Sobrang busy na kami talaga dito sa PSC and it’s good naman na most recently, our board has been completed with the appointment of the fourth Commissioner. Mas marami na kaming magagawa,” she said.

“It was a new experience for us. A lot of us have not experienced this cold weather in Mongolia and the altitude,” said team skipper Manville Billiones, who came from Pennsylvania in the United States and joined the squad back in 2019.

Billones was the leading scorer in the tournament with 12 points.

With the squad now moving up to Division III B in 2024, Ijas said coaching the team was an amazing experience.

“The players were really good as a team after they last played in the 2019 SEA Games,” said Ijas.

Among the scoring leaders next to Billones were Kenwrick Ze (11), Steven Fuglister (11) , Carl Montano (10) and Jan Regencia (6).

On the other hand, Alian is an 18-yearold, 6’1” point guard for the LSGH squad, which recently took runner-up honors in the National Collegiate Athletic Association junior cagefest, He averaged 12.08 points, 5.92 rebounds, 4.31 assists, and 1.62 steals for LSGH in their recent campaign.

“He is a guy who is willing to sacrifice the limelight for the success of his teammates. If you are looking for a player who is willing to give his power away for the good of others, that’s Ethan. That is the value he brings that impressed me the most,” added Robinson.

The Green Archers also got University of the East standout, 19-year-old Vhoris Marasigan, a 6’2” shooting guard.

Marasigan played for Batang Tiaong in the recent Smart-NBTC National Finals, norming 16.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists.

“’Yung path naman ni Vhoris is different. He took one step back, but two steps forward,” said Robinson.

The trio will join Jonnel Policarpio, Isaiah Phillips, and Matthew Rubico of Lyceum of the Philippines University-Cavite as the incoming freshman cagers of the Green Archers. Peter Atencio