Gilas displayed gilas — solons
In restoring PH status as ‘king of hoops’
CAMARINES Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte and Citizens Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) party-list Rep. Eduardo “Bro. Eddi Villanueva on Saturday lauded Gilas Pilipinas for its “slam dunk” in the ongoing Asian Games by posting a payback win against the vexing Jordan team, restoring the Philippines to basketball supremacy in Asia after a six-decade drought.
“It was a slam dunk for Gilas as it put our basketball-crazed nation back to its erstwhile status as the king of hoops in this part of the world at the end of an uphill campaign that saw it winning by a single point, one after the other, against Asia’s two powerhouses–China and Iran—before exacting revenge on up-and-coming Jordan, which dealt its lone loss in this quadrennial tournament,” said Villafuerte, National Unity Party (NUP) president and an extreme sports aficionado who also plays basketball himself.
“Nagpakitang gilas ang Gilas. Truly, puso is in their DNA,” said Villafuerte as he congratulated the 12 hoopsters on the Philippine team led by naturalized player Justin Brownlee and the coaching team led by the country’s most awarded professional basketball coach Tim Cone.
Villanueva congratulated the Philippine basketball team Gilas Pilipinas after it beats Jordan, 70-60, to bag a historic gold medal in 2023 Asian Games Men’s Basketball.
“The stunning victory of Gilas Pilipinas is not only an additional accolade in our national sports histroy. It also gives us in such as time as this a needed inspiration and sense of confidence that we can emerge victorious amidst all challenges and hardships that we are braving now as a nation,” Villanueva said.
This win by the Gilas Pilipinas breaks the 61-year gold drought of the country after it won its last gold back in 1962.
“We join with the entire Philippine nation in celebrating this monumental victory in international sports. To God be the glory!” Villanueva ended.
Villafuerte said the Gilas team along with all our other athletes who have thus far made podium finishes in bagging gold, silver or bronze medals in the Hangzhou, China edition of the multi-sport event “have proven anew that Filipinos are world-class athletes.”
Villafuerte is one of the authors of a pending measure—House Bill (HB) 8495—seeking to grant subsidies and other incentives to young Filipinos who excel in sports as well as to the sports organizations or clubs that support these athletes.
Villafuerte also authored Republic Act (RA) 11470 or “The National Academy of Sports Act,” that established the National Academy of Sports in New Clark City (NCC) Complex in Capas, Tarlac that provides educational scholarships and sports training to deserving Filipino athletes.
He said that Gilas created history in winning the country’s first gold in hoops in 61 years since 1962, when our team led by the late basketball legend Caloy “The Big Difference” Loyzaga won over Japan for the premier trophy.
Cone, who was also the coach of the Philippine Centennial Team that competed in the 1998 Asiad in Thailand, had a chance to end the country’s post-1962 quest for a gold that year, but our hoopsters eventually settled for the bronze medal after losing to China and Korea in the 1998 games.
What made the Gilas victory much sweeter for the team and the Philippines, he said, was that it capped an uphill campaign by a team that was hastily assembled in just 12 days after most of the players in the one that competed in the barely a month-ago FIBA (World Cup) contest in Manila failed to suit up for Asiad because of prior commitments in their respective ball clubs overseas.
He added that the Gilas triumph in the Asiad now obscures its dispiriting finish in FIBA Manila, where it lost all its qualifying games, save for its no-bearing win over China, and ended up No. 24 in that tournament of 32 country-teams.
As of Friday, Gilas’ gold was our country’s fourth one in the Asiad, along with 2 silver medals and 12 bronze medals–or a total haul of 18 medals that put us at No. 16 two days before the games end in Hangzhou, China.
