OF TREES AND FOREST
Whenever I travel abroad, in Europe or anywhere in the world really, I am always amazed at how the other peoples of the world are crazy about football. It is regarded as the world’s most popular sport in the world with an estimated 3.5 billion fan base. One of the reasons for its popularity is its simplicity and accessibility. It is not uncommon to see barefoot kids playing football on the streets or on some unpaved roads.
Here in the Philippines, basketball is our football. Filipinos are obsessed with basketball. Just like football, it is common to see the game being played on every street in the country. You go to any barangay and you will find basketball courts. But in fact, it was not always the number one sport in the country. There was a time when football was the most played sport thanks to Europeans who introduced the game to Filipinos. Even today, when you go to the Negros province and other areas in the Visayas you will find football being played by many of our kababayans there.
And I do not think there should be any competition among the many sports in the country. Although I agree that other sports should be given more resources, I do not think that it should be at the expense of another. What we need to do is promote sports as an important tool for development.
I know that it is a cliche to regard sports as an anti-illegal drugs campaign but encouraging our people to engage in sports does have very positive impact on the lives of individuals. Aside from strengthening the physical, psychological, emotional, and social well-being of people, it also fosters camaraderie and community allowing our kids to become part of a larger social group.
According to a publication by the Displaced Children and Orphans Fund and the USAID, sports can be harnessed for “physical education, humanitarian response, reconciliation and peace building, rehabilitation and integration of persons with disabilities, advocacy and social/policy change, awareness raising and education, and economic development.”
In terms of economic growth, sports can also be a powerful tool. Building stadiums, for instance, will create jobs. Once operational, crowd attendance to games, concerts and other events will generate spending and boost employment and livelihood. It can potentially help tourism and will definitely have a positive multiplier effect in the community and in nearby areas.
These were some of the considerations we had when we decided to build the Villar City Stadium in Cavite. The stadium, which is a state of the art facility covering 30,000 square meters, will have basketball, volleyball, padel, pickleball, and badminton courts but the center piece is a football pitch which athletes can use for a variety of sporting activities.
Our people do not have access to a lot of sports venues. Of course, we have the historic Araneta Coliseum, Ultra, Cuneta Astrodome, the Philippine Sports Arena, and the aging Rizal Memorial Sports Complex but we need a more modern and bigger one with which to anchor our sports development program. And we are building it in the south. Specifically, the venue will be constructed in the University Town area of Villar City in Dasmarinas, Cavite.
This vision is one step closer to reality as we recently signed a memorandum of agreement with All-Star Properties Inc. Chairman Dan Palami, CEO Mel Macasaquit and COO Misagh Bahadoran, who also played for the Philippine Azkals.
This is all part of my belief that our kababayans deserve world class service, venues and amenities. It is also part of our effort to decongest Metro Manila by focusing more on properties in the southern portion of the Metropolis. This is a great step toward the development of my legacy project, Villar City, and this is just the beginning.
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