Dumaguete Day 1

Dumaguete. On the southern coast of Negros. How cool can this be -- to cover football and travel while at it?

Took Philippines Airlines Flight PR 291 which was the first flight out of Manila. I took the opportunity to finish Marcus Luttrell’s Sole Survivor which is a book about a US Navy SEAL unit that was attacked by the Taliban up in the Korengal mountains of Afghanistan.

The flight’s about an hour and it wasn’t so pleasant with all the turbulence so I was real happy when we touched down at Sibulan Airport in Dumaguete at 8am. The site was still climbing and there were lots of people at the airport.

Red Avelino who is with me for the flight told me that the city was small and that if you wanted to go from one location to another, you’d be there in a jiffy.

“Not bad, I thought. “That makes it easier to get around.”

What I love about touring the provinces is seeing the old Spanish or American sites that seem better preserved than their Manila counterparts. As a history buff and someone deeply interested in our colonial past, I chafe at our inability to take care of artifacts and historical sites.

I first checked in my hotel the C&L Suites Inn which is just at the corner of the city plaza. Red is in the opposite block at the Maria Luisa Inn. He’s luckier coz they’ve got wifi. Mine? You have to go to the coffee shop for that so it’s either you use your broadband or go to the nearby McDonald’s for the free use.

I settled down, checked some email. Then headed out. As I crossed the street, I saw the old belfry that was built during the Spanish times to warn the populace of approaching pirates. There was a shrine to the Blessed Virgin at the foot of it and many Catholic faithful were there lighting candles and saying their prayers. I did too then snapped some pics. I wanted to go inside the St. Catherine Cathedral but Red was waiting for me at McDonald’s for breakfast. Even before I entered, I noticed that there were a lot of Americans. I had a feeling that these were former servicemen who were assigned to either Clark Air Base of Subic Naval Base and had decided to make Dumaguete their home (it was cheaper and laid back). Turns out I was right, but it also drew it’s share of tourists aside from other retired military men who were assigned to Korea or elsewhere.

After breakfast, we had a meeting with a local football official.

Oh, I’m here as Media Officer for the PFF Suzuki U-23 Cup and this was the Visayas regional’s leg. It’s already rated as the most exciting of the tourney with Iloilo, Bacolod, Leyte, Negros Occidental, and Negros Oriental (the Dumaguete team) competing for the right to advance to the semis.

Five members of the Philippine Men’s National Team will be arriving on Friday to join the motorcade in the afternoon. The city of over 100,000 seems stoked about this.

I was wearing my old national team t-shirt (not the jersey) and Red said that people were looking at it. Haha.

After a couple of meetings we head over to the Silliman football field to inspect the pitch as well as the nearby Mariano Perdices field that had some 400-500 kids playing football! It was an incredible site. While I see that in Ateneo during the AFC, this one reminded me of the time I went to Sta. Barbara and Barotac Nuevo in Iloilo. I wish that I had a video camera for this.

As it is, Dumaguete is like a “University town” with several big schools located here. I am told that the when school is in, there are some 30,000-plus students here.

At the meeting, we prepared the agenda for the press conference and the opening ceremony where city, PFF, and Suzuki officials would be in attendance.

We skipped lunch since we had a late breakfast and come late afternoon, we were real hungry so we went to Kamalig with Coach Butod who is such a fun guy to be with. He is the General Secretary of NORFA – the Negros Oriental Football Association. He remembers each and every one of his games with amazing clarity and detail.

I ask who the local football greats are and he quickly fires off names – Percy Guarin, Noel Arevalo, Gee Asis and more. Then there were the more familiar names – Marlon Maro (who has coached De La Salle and the College of Saint Benilde), Edwin Cabalida (Ateneo, Air Force, and Azkals assistant), Roroy Pinero (Foundation University and some of those old teams in Manila), and Al Bustamante and Federico Rabaya both who currently play for Hans Smit over at DLSU. I heard that Coach Hans loved Dumaguete. I wonder why, coach.

Incidentally, Coach Edwin and Roroy are here while the national team is on break. We bumped in Roroy in Perdices Field. And later, the Iloilo team coached by UST’s Marjo Allado arrives. We talk by the bleachers as I say hi to some familiar faces.

We were supposed to walk going back to our respective hotels by walking along Rizal Boulevard that they have nicknamed “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams” because many people go there to propose and such. The promenade is lovely and reminds me of Roxas Boulevard before Alfredo Lim evicted the supposedly non-paying stall owners. It faces Tañon Strait and it sure makes a nice sight late in the afternoon. The establishments on the opposite side of the road remind me of Boracay. They even have a Cocomangas here! Along the promenade, I saw the many stalls and chairs with hawkers selling tempura and such. I wanted to snap some pictures but with night setting in, I decided to come back another day and instead head back to the hotel to check my email and prepare for the following day’s press conference. By 9pm I dozed off.