BEACH Volleyball Republic founder Charo Soriano hopes to bring the lessons she learned in sports to everyday life.

“Sports help a lot in character development. And because of my long experiences in playing volleyball all over the country, I realize what needs to be done and how,” said Soriano during the 125th “Usapang Sports on Air” by the Tabloids Organization in Philippine Sports (TOPS) via Zoom last Oct. 21.

One of them is to use sports to help educate the youth.

“We only live one life so we have to make use of our time to help people, inspire people in whatever way we can. In my case, help and serve thru sports,” added Soriano, who is running as councilor in Tuguegarao in next year’s election.

“Ever since I was young, I already wanted to serve. It is always something I wanted to do. Yung family talaga namin taga-Tugue. And since 2013, they have already asked me to run, but I waited for the right time when I am finally ready to serve,” Soriano told sports editors and reporters in the weekly public service program sponsored by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and Games and Amusements Board (GAB).

“I’ve learned so much over the past decade that I can really say that I want to be able to expand my knowledge and my service to more people, not only the volleyball community,” added Soriano, who started from being a player, assistant coach, head coach, manager, team owner and now, an organizer.

“With the help of sports, I want to be able to educate our youth on what has been happening around us. There are ways for us to become better individuals, lalo na sa mga kabataan and even women.”

“So for me, education is my No. 1 priority if I get elected as councilor. Digitalization is No. 2 and livelihood is No. 3,” explained Soriano.

“I want to be part of the digitalization of Tuguegarao and that’s one of the things that we have been doing. Nag-increase kami ng infrastructure para maging open ang economy ng Tuguegarao even during the pandemic. Madami talagang nawalan ng trabaho and we need to be able to ensure that people will find jobs, especially in our province.”

Soriano is also a strong advocate of environment protection.

“Apart for sports, I’m actually very much involved in environmental sustainablity not only in Tuguegarao but in the world. I’m an advocate of Climate Change and I’m also founder of the Northern Natural Resource Conservation, Inc.. One of our programs is Tuguegarao One Million Trees movement, which we started late last year. We did tree planting activities during my birthday kasama mga SK at volleyball players-friends natin,” claimed Soriano.

“That’s one of my platforms even before I decided to run.”

But sports will not be missing Soriano the player even if she takes on new challenges in public service.

“Here in Tuguegarao, we are also trying to bring and establish sports, like basketball, track and field and of course, volleyball and beach volleyball,” explained Soriano.

“Madami tayong coastal communities like about an hour or two hours away. That’s one of the things that we want to be able to do, although mahirap ngayon because of the pandemic. Fortunately, our national volleyball federation (PNVF) is very helpful in pushing us to be able to do bubble training and compete in international tournaments. Kaya bibigyan pa din natin ng kaukulang pansin ang sports.”. with reports from Gab Ferreras