38 athletes, 6 more to be feted in Baguio Kislap awards slated Dec 30

By Pigeon M. Lobien

BAGUIO CITY – Baguio and Cordillera athletes who excelled in international competitions this year will be feted in the Kafagway/Kordillera International Sports Luminary Awards Podium (Kislap) on Dec. 30.

It will be the first time too that it will be held without the man who started it some 40 years ago, Narciso Padilla, who died last March 3.

“All his program that he started 46 years ago will continue,” said son Fritz Gerald, who took over the running of the eight-event, month-long Silahis ng Pasko (SnP) program that includes the Kislap awards.

The 19 athletes who won gold medals in the last Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) earlier this month will lead the parade of awardees.

Double gold and silver winner Stephanie Sabalo will be one of the main awardees along with world International Boxing Association (AIBA) champion Nesthy Petecio, who has called Baguio her home in the past 14 years. Petecio is a student at the University of Baguio (UB) where she is taking up Hotel Tourism Management.

Sabalo is a former member of the Saint Louis University (SLU) theater, who is Baguio’s most bemedalled athlete winning two gold medals and a silver in dancesport with partner Michael Angelo Marquez in the SEAG.

The win entitles her to the Athlete of the Year (AoY) – Break Out, said the younger Padilla.

Petecio did not only win gold in the last SEAG but was also crowned a world champion during the AIBA last October. Aside from them, top awardees will include taekwondo poomsae athlete Jeordan Dominguez who won the freestyle competition of poomsae in the SEAG and a bronze medal winner in the World Taekwondo Poomsae Grand Prix last June.

Also on the top list is Divine Wally, winner of the 48-kilogram division of wushu sanda despite nursing an injury.

She is also a bronze medalist in the World Wushu Championship last October, the same event she won in 2017.

One of the bigger stories in Baguio/Cordillera sports is that of 37-year-old Jearome Calica who joined and won a gold in the SEAG 18 years after his first and last.

The then 19-year-old won a gold medal in wushu-sanda along with Team Lakay great Mark Sangiao, who took a gold also, and the then 18-year old Eduard Folayang, who came home empty-handed.

Calica will receive the AoY – Comeback Award.

Then there is Jean Claude Saclag who was a silver medalist in the 2014 Asian Games in wushu sanda but has since then left the Philippine Wushu Federation.

Last March, he won gold in the National Kickboxing competition in Tagaytay City which was his ticket to the kickboxing national team and the 30th SEAG.

The athlete named after the movie great Jean Claude Van Damme will get the AoY – Big Shift award.

UB alumni Estie Gay Liwanen will be one of the Golden Awardees as the Ifugao fighter was among the first Cordilleran to win a gold in kurash.

Other awardees include Ariel Ray Lampacan (muay Thai), Sandi Menchi Abahan (obstacle course race), Abegail Abad and Elmer Manlapas in arnis, Brian Kurt Barbosa (taekwondo), Jason Baucas (wrestling), Jerry Olsim and Gina Iniong in kickboxing, Mark Eduard Striegl in sambo and Kenneth Jiane Villa in e-sports.

UB’s Josie Gabuco, who won the country’s first AIBA title in 2012 and gold in the Asian Championships recently in Bangkok, and Carlo Paalam, winner of gold medals in the last SEAG, are also in the list.

Gabuco has also won the gold medal in the SEAG on four other occasions: Vientiane in 2009, 2011 in Jakarta, 2013 in Naypyidaw, Thailand and 2015 in Singapore.

The silver awardees will include Jones Inso in wushu taolu, Gideon Fred Padua (wushu sanda), Rusha Mae Bayacsan in muay Thai waikru and taksa, Jenelyn Olsim and Islay Erica Bomogao in muay Thai, Jason Balabal in wrestling, Renaly Dacquel and Jomar Balangui in kickboxing, Billy Joel Valenzuela in arnis, Minalyn Foy-os in wrestling and Irish Magno in boxing.

The bronze awardees include Thornton Lou Sayan and Daniel Parantac in wushu taolu, Ezarai Yalong in arnis, Alexis Mayag-as in muay Thai, Helen Dawa in kurash, Helen Aclopen, Jedd Andre Diño Kim and Marianne Mariano in sambo, Karol Maguide in kickboxing and Aira Villegas in boxing.

Special awards will be given to Billy Alumno as coach of the year, UB as the school of the year for having the most athlete to the SEAG, UB’s men’s basketball team and University of the Cordillera (UC) Lady Jaguars in women’s basketball.

The special Master awards will be given to the 67-year old Erlinda Lavandia who won a gold in the Kuching, Malaysia Masters Athletics tournament where the 40-something Christabel Martes won two golds – 10,000 and 5,000 meter runs – and two bronze medals.

The SnP is an annual project started by the late Padilla, a former city councilor and tourism officer and camp director to Michael Keon in the Gintong Alay Project.

Silahis is to provide hope or giving something to those with less in life and started last December 1 with the Children’s Mardi Gras, the December 7-8 Lucky Christmas Family, the December 15 Special Olympics for Special People (blind), the December 22 Share a Joy with indigent sick children, the December 25 Lucky Christmas Baby, the KISLAP and TALA (for senior citizens) on December 30 and the January 1 (2020) Lucky New year Baby.

It is held in coordination with the Baguio City Social Welfare Development Office as well as benefactors that turn Santa Claus to the events like the Larry Puckett Greenwater Foundation, the Saint Louis Boys High School Class of 1986, Axa SunStar, the Feast Baguio, Benguet Electric Cooperative, Baguio Rep. Marques and Mrs. Soledad Go, Porta Vaga Mall and Baguio Center Mall.  -- PNA