357 in 357

Last Wednesday night I was browsing YouTube for any highlights of that week’s Champions League action (the premier European club football competition) when I came upon this clip. (It’s in Catalan I believe, but there’s an English summary in the YouTube comments).

The clip was about Paulino Alcántara, unarguably the greatest Filipino football player of all time. He is the greatest goal scorer in the history of FC Barcelona, having scored 357 goals in 357 matches during his playing days from 1912-1927. Yes, this is the same FC Barcelona that once had such greats like Johan Cruyff, Diego Maradona, Ronaldo, and Luis Figo and currently has Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o, Lionel Messi, and Thierry Henry.

He was born in Iloilo on October 7, 1896 and was the first Filipino/Asian player to play in Europe. Here’s an interesting excerpt from Barcelona’s website:

“His ability to hit the most powerful of shots crossed frontiers on the 30th April 1922 when, in a game between Spain and France, he hit a shot so hard that it ripped right through the net. For many years after, children from Barcelona would recall that moment and would wish to do the same as the man from the Philipines.” (Yeah, it was misspelled on the site.)

He retired from football in 1927 to become a doctor. He later became Barcelona’s club director from 1931-1934 and once coached the Spanish national team in 1951. So while the current state of Filipino football is pretty sad, we’ve had good players/national teams long, long ago. Alcantara was the best of them.

Sources:

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I’ll do more posts of Filipino historical figures in the future.

Eh, make it 9/12 - he’s guilty

Just heard over Philippine radio (and from this Inquirer article) that former Philippine President Joseph “Erap” Estrada has been found guilty of plunder by the Sandiganbayan and has been sentenced to life in prison.

For up to the minute news on big RP events like this, listen to either DZRH through www.eradioportal.com (if you can understand Tagalog) or go to any of the linked Philippine news sites on this page.

Let’s see what the fallout of this will turn out to be….

9/13

Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio was recently quoted in Philippine news that the number 13 is former Philippine President Joseph “Erap” Estrada’s favorite number. After all, he was the 13th President of the Philippines. He was impeached by the House of Representatives on November 13, 2001.

The number 13 is also the date in September in which his fate will be decided.

The Sandiganbayan, the anti-graft/corruption court of the Philippines, has until 9/13/07 to deliver its verdict in the Estrada plunder trial. Estrada is accused of pocketing $82 million in kickbacks and payoffs during his term as President (1999-2001 - 31 months). It took 6 years and 155 witnesses, but the moment is finally here. And some folks are getting a bit jittery as for what’s to come.

A 9/4 Forbes article noted that shares on the Philippine Stock Exchange fell 1.7% on Tuesday partly because of “domestic political jitters”. A 9/5 Inquirer article stated that “the Armed Forces of the Philippines brought out its combat troops, armored carriers and cannons to show its readiness to meet contingencies in Metro Manila, amid rumors of fresh destabilization plots and possible violence if Estrada was found guilty.” Malacañang said that these are “normal security measures” and that “the public has nothing to worry about.”

Or should they?

There is the possibility of something going down regardless of the outcome. Should the verdict read guilty, there will inevitably be protests from Estrada supporters, which, according to University of Santo Tomas poly-sci professor Rey Trillana, would be hazardous to current President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, for “the reaction of his supporters is something even Estrada cannot control.”

Should the verdict read not guilty, Estrada would be cleared of any wrongdoing and would be in a position to challenge Arroyo’s legitimacy once again by posing himself as a victim when he was overthrown in 2001.

There have also been rumors that Arroyo will pardon Estrada if he is found guilty towards a “greater national reconciliation” according to Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Looks like the wild animal that is Philippine politics is primed to receive plenty of attention in the coming days. That’s not always a good thing.

Other sources:

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Author’s note

Hello to the new and returning members of Troy Philippines. My time as a student @ SC is done, so I won’t be able to see you as much as before. But I’ll be there at the 1st meeting, albeit late. Depends on how nice the 60 will be to me that day.

Let this year be the best that TP’s ever seen….

– Raymond