Category: Philippines Daily Inquirer

Even with its main man struggling, National University still stopped streaking La Salle in the UAAP Season 88 men’s basketball tournament on Sunday.

Figueroa scored just five points, sinking only two of his nine tries from the field. Still, he managed to snag eight rebounds, six assists and six steals to help the Bulldogs stay atop the standings with an 8-2 card.

For NU coach Jeff Napa shrugged off Figueroa’s offensive woes as long as they win.

‘Sometimes, you can’t help but get off nights but it’s his presence that’s very crucial for us,’ Napa said in Filipino.

‘Let’s say he couldn’t shoot tonight. He was still a leader who was willing to take shots and risks. His teammates don’t lose trust in him even if he misses his first shot. We still tell him to keep shooting. He even apologized to me and I said, ‘di mo kailangan mag-sorry.”

Others picked up the slack with Figueroa not his usual self. Mark Parks stepped up, scoring seven points, including a crucial basket that allowed the Bulldogs to snap the Green Archers’ winning run at four.

La Salle, shorthanded and all without key cogs Mason Amos and Kean Baclaan, refused to go down without a fight, pulling within five with 1:05 remaining after trailing by as many as 13.

Steve Nash Enriquez paced the Bulldogs with 16 points while Paul Francisco, despite fouling out, finished with 14 points on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting game.

La Salle guard Jacob Cortez had 16, while forward Mike Phillips notched a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Philippines pauses every Nov. 1, as families gather at cemeteries to honor their departed loved ones.

But the Alas Pilipinas under-16 team, the country’s youngest national volleyball players, had to sacrifice the tradition for the 2nd AVC Asian Women’s U16 Volleyball Championship at Princess Sumaya Hall here.

And as if being apart from their families wasn’t challenging enough, the girls jump straight into the fire as they battle defending champion Japan on All Saints’ Day.

‘Of course, knowing our culture, we’re very family-oriented. So what we’re trying to instill in the players is the value of playing not just for the country, but also for their families-to make them proud, even if they’re far from home,’ Alas U16 team manager Karl Chan told the Inquirer on Saturday. ‘I face all the sacrifices and challenges because I want to grow and make the country proud. It’s hard to be away from my family this Undas, but their love and prayers give me strength. And I know how proud they are of how far I’ve come,’ Rayco, a 14-year-old opposite spiker, told the Inquirer in Filipino.

Chan hopes that the team’s sacrifice will give encouragement to other young players from different places that ‘they have the chance to represent the country someday.’ ‘At the same time, we remind them that they also have a family here in volleyball, the one that’s united and working together toward a common goal, which is to perform well in the AVC Under-16 Championships,’ Chan added. ‘We’re really looking forward to seeing them become more cohesive, even within this short period they’re together.’

Alas U16 coach Edwin Leyva has faith in Rayco that she will step up big time in this tournament. ‘She’s a very all-around player. She knows how to set, receive, and serve well, aside from being a very good spiker. Very intelligent spiker, actually,’ Leyva told the Inquirer.

Opposite spiker Merish Beltran from Gracel Christian College Foundation Taguig and outside hitters Kristel Mirasol from Rafael B. Lacson Memorial High School in Talisay, Nadeth Herbon from Leyte National High School, Princess Sajulga from Kibawe Bukidnon, and Kim Peralta of University of Santo Tomas will also compete with the top Asian youth teams.

Completing the national youth team are setters Resty Jane Olaguir (GCCF) and Mischa Ysabel Ambrocio (UST). Libero Frances Ramos (SMCC), and middle blockers Cristina Gale from Sagay, Negros Occidental, Jhenica Sadia (GCCF), and Megan Hernandez (Canossa Lipa).

Leyva encouraged his wards not to get intimidated by top-notch Asian programs like Japan and Iran, which the team will face on Sunday.

‘The first thing I told them was to humanize the opponent. They’re people too, they make mistakes just like we do. If we perform well, we’ll bring out an even better game,’ he said. ‘I just want them to enjoy and play their usual game. And most importantly, be proud that they are the first-ever batch of Under-16 players representing the Philippines. Hopefully, this will open doors for them to play in more international tournaments in the future.’

A Bacolod police officer who confessed to killing a 42-year-old woman will be investigated by the National Police Commission (Napolcom) on orders of Commissioner Rafael Vicente Calinisan.

Police identified the victim as Kristine Joy Dignadice, whose sedan was found abandoned and blood-stained in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental, on Oct. 29.

On Saturday, the suspect, who was not named by the police, confessed to the disappearance and killing of the victim after turning himself in to the director of the Negros Island Police Regional Office, Brig Gen. Arnold Thomas Ibay, the police office said.

The authorities have yet to determine the motive behind the crime, the police added.

During his surrender, the officer also volunteered the whereabouts of the victim’s body, police reported.

Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) and the Special Investigation Team have begun search and recovery operations to find the victim’s remains, the Napolcom said. The suspect’s surrender was a ‘significant breakthrough,’ Ibay said, promising transparency in the investigation.

‘There will be no cover-up. We will let the evidence speak for itself. The full force of the law will be applied regardless of who is involved. Justice will be served to the victim and her family,’ Ibay said in a statement.

‘We owe it to the public we serve to demonstrate that no one is above the law. We will make sure that this case is pursued with fairness, professionalism, and compassion for the victim’s family,’ he added.

Defending champion Japan was all praise for the Alas Pilipinas after its gallant stand in their thrilling 2nd AVC Asian Women’s U16 Volleyball Championship opening showdown on Saturday evening at Princess Sumaya Hall here.

Japan kicked off its title drive with a 25-17, 21-25, 25-16, 25-20 win, but the Alas U16 team didn’t go down without a fight’It was a difficult game because the Philippines was so good,’ said Japanese coach Daichi Saegusa through a translator.

‘We could have played well, but this match is going to be good for us because we have more games. It was a good opportunity.’

What impressed Saegusa was the composure and plays of setter Resty Jane Olaguir from Gracel Christian College Foundation Taguig.

‘She’s a very good setter and [have a lot of] combinations,’ Japan head coach said.

Ren Sugimoto, who led the charge with 16 points, was impressed by team captain and opposite spiker Xyz Rayco.

Rayco powered the Philippines’ gallant stand with nine points, scoring seven in the second to win the set. Alas U16 coach Edwin Leyva was proud to hear those praises from the opposing team, inspiring them to play better in a must-win game against Iran on Sunday at 11 p.m. (Philippine time).

‘Everybody contributed to the game. Our defense was really good. Unfortunately, we lacked a bit of energy, experience, and endurance. But we know we can win, and we hope to play even better in our game against Iran,’ said Leyva.

Leyva aims to win to get into the quarterfinal. ‘We’re hoping that everything will fall into place because most things are actually going well,’ he said. ‘The errors we made were mostly crucial service errors and a few overplays. We’ll focus on practicing those in training this morning, and hopefully, by the afternoon, we can play a much better game.’

‘I’ll be on the street and some kid will go, ‘There’s Marty McFly!” Fox says. ‘No, this is an old man.’

It’s been 40 years since ‘Back to the Future’ debuted in theaters, but neither time, nor Parkinson’s disease has done much – regardless of what he says – to diminish Fox’s boyish good nature. For Fox, traveling through time with ‘Back to the Future’ has been part of life. It’s the film that strapped a flux capacitor to his career and has, ever since, stayed in his rear view. ‘Sometimes I look at it and think about my family,’ Fox, 64, said in a recent interview by Zoom from his apartment in New York. ‘I think about how I have a 37-year-old son who wasn’t born yet. It’s a long time ago.’

On Friday, ‘Back to the Future’ is, again, back in theaters. The anniversary celebration also includes a new 4K trilogy gift set that comes complete with an OUTATIME license plate. Fox, himself, has just released ‘Future Boy: ‘Back to the Future’ and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum,’ a book he penned with Nelle Fortenberry.

While anniversary re-releases are commonplace for cherished classics, the occasion is a little different for Robert Zemeckis’ sci-fi landmark. On the one hand, the movie’s turn-back-the-clock nostalgia is indelibly linked to its 1980s moment. After its release on July 3, 1985, ‘Back to the Future’ was the No. 1 movie in theaters for 11 of its first 12 weeks. Then-President Ronald Reagan was among its biggest fans. But what was once so firmly lodged in the space-time continuum has, over the years, turned curiously timeless. Watch ‘Back to the Future’ now and you might be astonished at how effects-free most of it is, despite its director’s predilection for pushing film technology. Instead, ‘Back to the Future’ conjures its magic with a DeLorean, some Calvin Klein briefs and its most special effect: Christopher Lloyd’s eyebrows.

‘The distance between now and 1985 is greater than the distance between 1985 and 1955,’ Fox says. ‘In a way, that makes it more accessible. People aren’t locked into their time period. They’re not saying: This is real, this isn’t real. It’s all fantasy.’

Even more harrowing than pondering the distance from now to 1985 is recalling the flying-car future of the 1989 sequel. That movie was set in the faraway time of 2015. Say it with me now: Doc, this is heavy. ‘I got into the time machine’

But what most definitely hasn’t aged is Fox’s live wire performance in the original. His Marty McFly is like the Everykid ur-text: a seminal, guitar-playing, big-screen teenager trying to keep his family together.

‘I found my voice changing. This kind of squeaky incredulity came out,’ Fox says. ‘I get into the time machine, the DeLorean. I just felt comfortable in there. Very different than Alex (P. Keaton). Alex was harder because he knows everything. Marty knows nothing and knows he knows nothing. Everything is a new day to him.’

Fox was 24 at the time of the film’s making. He was thrown into the role while in the midst of playing Keaton on ‘Family Ties.’ ‘Back to the Future’ famously began with Eric Stoltz in the part, but Stoltz was fired after several weeks of shooting. Fox, stepping right onto the set, brought a more screwball energy.

‘No time for neurosis. No time for self-indulgent bulls-,’ Fox says. ‘I didn’t have time to investigate what happened with Eric. I had no rehearsal. I had no pep talk. I just showed up and then I was in a parking lot in the City of Industry. It’s all lit for days, this parking lot. It’s wet, with pockets of streaky luminescence. I remember looking at it and thinking: This must have cost more than the entire budget of ‘Family Ties.”

For Fox, Marty’s time-traveling confusion matched the whirlwind he was experiencing off set. ‘Sitting around with (executive producer) Steven Spielberg was not where I thought I’d be,’ recalls the Edmonton, Canada, native. A ticking clock

Fox had no choice but to take the ball and run – even if he sometimes found himself mistakenly searching for Marty’s camcorder on the set of ‘Family Ties.’ Most remarkably, he and Lloyd found their chemistry on the fly.

‘He’s like a father figure and a little brother to me, in a weird way,’ Fox says, chuckling. ‘I love him a lot. But at that time, I didn’t know him very well. I got to know him on part three. We jokingly call that ‘Brokeback to the Future.”

As time has moved on, ‘Back to the Future’ has meant different things to Fox at different times. Right now, in his fight for a cure for Parkinson’s, what resonates is ‘the whole sense about this clock that’s ticking,’ he says. In January, Fox was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Joe Biden. The Michael J. Fox Foundation, founded in 2000, is the world’s largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s research.

‘My kids are grown up and they’re doing well and getting married one by one,’ says Fox, who has four children with his wife, Tracy Pollan. ‘Exhaustion is my biggest issue. But I feel good. And I love rolling around in this movie because I know how much it means to people.’

Often, ‘Back to the Future’ recedes in Fox’s busy life. After five years of acting retirement, he’ll make a guest appearance on the upcoming third season of the Apple TV+ series ‘Shrinking.’ But every now and then, like Doc emerging out of thin air in the DeLorean, ‘Back to the Future’ suddenly reappears. ‘I tell this one story about one Christmas when we were decorating the tree, I went to get some popcorn and heard the opening on the TV,’ Fox says, smiling. ‘I sat down and watched it. An hour later, my wife said, ‘Where are you?’ I said, ‘I’m watching ‘Back to the Future.’ And, you know, it’s really good. I’m good in it.’ Watching it on Christmas Eve, with a bowl of popcorn, I really loved it.’

At a secluded part of the Manila North Cemetery, the former mausoleum of the parents of Dr. Jose Rizal provides shelter to a 68-year-old woman who has spent more than half of her life living there as a grave caretaker.

Corazon Ventura has been living in the cemetery since she was 20. Since then, she has been keeping the graves of several families clean, aside from that of Rizal’s parents.

The remains of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonso were housed in that mausoleum for decades before being transferred to their hometown in Calamba, Laguna.

Originally, it was Ventura’s grandmother who maintained the mausoleum, but Corazon took over after her death.

According to her, Rizal’s relatives allowed her to live there since the remains of Rizal’s parents had already been transferred. Ventura, who used to live and work in Bulacan, moved into the cemetery after marrying her husband, whose family also took care of graves for a living. The cemetery was also a witness to the family she and her husband built, as they raised six children, who also remained with them. She said her husband’s construction job was not enough to allow them to live elsewhere.

‘Though it’s hard, we were forced to live here until now. This is where my children grew up and raised their own families,’ she said in Filipino.

At her age, she said her hope was for her children to experience life outside the cemetery.

‘I am already old, but my children are working hard to experience living in their own homes. Of course, who does not want to live outside [the cemetery]?’ she said. Ventura takes care of the graves of 15 families every year, with her income from different graves varying. Her children help her with their everyday expenses.

Just a few steps away from the old mausoleum of Rizal’s parents, Ventura showed the mausoleum of the family of Rizal’s sister, Saturnina Rizal Hidalgo. During her walkthrough on Saturday, Nov. 1, she was arranging the flowers to put on the graves.

According to her, she does not have a hard time doing her work as the living descendants treat her kindly.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was named World Series MVP for the Los Angeles Dodgers with one of the greatest pitching performances in Fall Classic history, including an epic relief appearance in Game 7 on Saturday night.

Yamamoto pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in the clincher a day after throwing 96 pitches in a Game 6 win. He also threw a four-hitter in Game 2 that was the first complete game in the World Series since 2015.

‘Yamamoto is the GOAT!’ manager Dave Roberts shouted moments before the Dodgers hoisted the World Series trophy.

The 27-year-old Japanese ace pitched out of a jam in the ninth inning, leaving the bases loaded and the score tied at 4. After cruising through the 10th, he worked around Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s leadoff double to preserve a 5-4 lead and lock up LA’s second consecutive championship.

Signed from Japan to a $325 million, 12-year contract before last season, Yamamoto was 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA against the Toronto Blue Jays. The 27-year-old struck out 15 and walked two over 17 2/3 innings, allowing two runs and 10 hits. The right-hander’s Game 2 gem was his second consecutive complete game of the postseason. He retired the final 20 batters in a 5-1 Dodgers victory. That came after a three-hitter against Milwaukee in the National League Championship Series, the first postseason complete game in eight years.

No pitcher had gone the distance in the Fall Classic since Kansas City’s Johnny Cueto fired a two-hitter against the New York Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series.

Yamamoto was not quite as sharp in Game 6, allowing one run and five hits in six innings as Los Angeles won 3-1 to force Game 7.

Including a victory in Game 2 of last year’s World Series against the New York Yankees, Yamamoto is 4-0 with a 1.13 ERA in four Fall Classic appearances. Arizona ace Curt Schilling was the last pitcher to throw consecutive complete games in the postseason, tossing three in a row in the 2001 NL Division Series and NLCS.

Surigao del Norte Governor Robert Lyndon Barbers suspended classes at all levels in both public and private schools in the province on Monday, Nov. 3, as Tropical Storm Tino entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR).

Barbers also suspended work in both public and private sectors to ensure the safety of residents.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), the storm is expected to make its initial landfall over Eastern Samar or Dinagat Islands late Monday evening or early Tuesday morning.

Barbers said the suspension of classes and work would allow residents to prepare for the strong winds and heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Tino.

He said his decision was based on Pagasa’s public advisory issued at 11 a.m. Sunday, which announced the storm’s expected early landfall. Pagasa also raised Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 1 over Eastern Samar, Dinagat Islands, Surigao, and Bucas Grande Islands.

Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief PLtGen. Jose Melencio Nartatez visited the wake of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Police Captain Joel Deiparine to pay respects to the fallen officer and his family.

Nartatez attended the wake on October 31, offering his and the PNP’s condolences to the bereaved family.

‘On behalf of the entire Philippine National Police, I extend my deepest condolences to the family of Police Captain Joel Deiparine. He was a true example of courage and dedication to duty. His passing is a great loss not only to his family but also to the PNP and the community he served,’ Nartatez said in Filipino. Nartatez also assured Deiparine’s family of financial and legal assistance and vowed to bring the suspects to justice.

‘We will not abandon his family. Captain Deiparine served with honor and integrity, and we owe it to him to continue what he stood for: service, sacrifice, and love of country,’ he added.

The late police captain was posthumously awarded the PNP Heroism Medal ‘for courageously standing his ground and valiantly performing his sworn duty, ultimately sacrificing his life in the line of duty,’ according to the PNP. Deiparine, the assistant chief of the CIDG Intelligence Section in Central Visayas, died during a shootout with a gun-for-hire group in Cebu City on October 25, the PNP said. He was accompanied by Executive Master Sgt. Artchel Tero, who sustained a wound to his upper lip in the altercation.

The primary suspect surrendered to the Pasig Police Station on October 29, and four others are now in police custody. One suspect remains at large, the PNP added.

Noel Kampton’s debut as a Criss Cross King Cruncher was cut short in the opener, as he was subbed out by Thai coach Tai Bundit for Alas Pilipinas star Marck Espejo, who had to play through a heavily-taped arm to overcome PGJC-Navy in the Spikers’ Turf Invitational Conference opener last Monday.

The newcomer apologized to Espejo for having to play through pain, but the 10-year national team veteran shrugged off the sacrifice and encouraged the rookie to bounce back after an eight-point debut.

‘He was still dealing with an injury from the World Championship. I messaged him after the game and said, ‘Kuya, sorry you had to play because of me,’ but he told me he was ready anyway,’ Kampton said in Filipino

‘What’s great about Kuya Marck is that I’ve learned so much from him in every aspect of volleyball. I used to think I already knew a lot, but it turns out he knows even more.’

Four days later, Kampton never wavered and made up for his first game lapses with 14 points to lead Criss Cross to its second straight win with a 25-14, 25-15, 25-21 sweep of VNS on Friday at FiloIl EcoOil Center in San Juan City.

‘It was really first-game jitters since I’m a rookie. Even though I already have some experience from other tournaments, the nerves were still there, especially because this is my first time playing in the Spikers’ Turf and I’m with new teammates,’ said the former La Salle star, who dropped 10 kills, three blocks, and an ace.

The 25-year-old outside spiker is grateful for the mentorship he’s having with Criss Cross not only from Espejo but also from MVP Jude Garcia, Ysay Marasigan and Krung Arbasto.

‘I just need to keep training and improving. What I really like about Criss Cross is that the environment is more encouraging,’ he said.