Seatmates

I took a Philippine Airlines flight from Manila to Bacolod last Saturday and found myself sitting beside Games and Amusements Board (GAB) Commissioner Angel Bautista in the plane.

What luck, I thought, I had about an hour’s worth of conversation with Bautista–surely, enough to fill up a column. And I didn’t even plan it.

Then, lo and behold, on the flight back to Manila the next day, I sat beside someone who would probably be the last person I could imagine to be a seatmate. He was University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) president Anton Montinola of Far Eastern University (FEU).

Of course, you remember FEU president Dr. Edilberto de Jesus’ two letters published in the "Feedback" section of The STAR last week. Dr. de Jesus wrote to react to my columns on scalping.

As I gingerly took my seat beside Montinola, I braced myself for the same earful that I got from Dr. de Jesus in a phone conversation a few days ago. What did we talk about? Ah, that’s for you to read in tomorrow’s column.

Meanwhile, this one’s on Commissioner Bautista, an FEU’s product like his uncle Sen. Ramon Revilla.

Bautista, 56, looks young for his age–it must run in the family because you couldn’t convince Dr. Vicky Belo that Sen. Revilla is 75. He credits tennis for his youthful looks. The sport keeps him fit and trim. He’s the national 45-and-over defending champion so he’s no pushover on the court. And he plays golf, too.

Bautista’s late father Carlos was second in a brood of eight–Sen. Revilla was the youngest. The oldest in the family, Belen, was former Finance Secretary Edgardo Espiritu’s mother.

Bautista had a lot of stories to tell about Sen. Revilla, his favorite uncle. He talked about Sen. Revilla being a varsity swimmer at FEU and how at 21, he was "discovered" by movie producer Dr. Jose Vera Perez at a gasoline filling station owned by the family in Imus. Sen. Revilla was attending to a customer when Dr. Vera Perez happened to drive in. It wasn’t difficult to spot Sen. Revilla–tall, handsome, and well-built. The discovery led to a phenomenal movie career that spanned decades.

And what about Sen. Robert Jaworski who married Sen. Revilla’s daughter Evelyn? Bautista said Sen. Revilla had a fit when the Big J–Mr. Basketball–eloped with his daughter–Miss University of the East–and they cooled off in Baguio for a month. But Bautista said when Jaworski and his bride came back, they were warmly welcomed by Sen. Revilla. Now, both Sen. Revilla and Sen. Jaworski are colleagues in the Senate.

One of Bautista’s perks as a GAB Commissioner is being able to sit beside his uncle at ringside for boxing shows.

Bautista said he’s been a boxing fan since he was a boy watching the likes of Flash Elorde, Bert Somodio, and Little Cezar in smokers. Now, at the GAB, Bautista has an opportunity to make a difference in supervising the affairs of the sport he loves.

A few weeks ago, Bautista attended the World Boxing Association (WBA) convention in Bangkok–his first international function as a GAB official. He said the GAB is reopening ties with the WBA which, in turn, is reaching out to give Filipinos more opportunities to fight for the title.

Bautista said he expects the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) to lift the ban on Filipinos fighting in Japan sooner than later. Since last February, the JBC has allowed only Filipinos fighting for an Oriental or world title to see action in Japan. He said that the GAB has taken steps to safeguard against human smuggling and turning fighters or their seconds into TNTs. Requests to fight abroad, he continued, must include credentials of the entire traveling party and an authorized GAB representative must accompany the applicants to the Japan Embassy to make sure there is no substitution of visas. A fighter must be rated in the GAB’s top 10 and should not have lost his last three bouts to qualify for an application, noted Bautista.

Bautista said he used to play tennis and golf a lot more often before joining the GAB. But he doesn’t mind.

One of Bautista’s projects is to clamp down on illegal horseracing bookies. In the last two months, he said the Philippine National Police, in coordination with the GAB, had arrested 18 illegal bookies. As a result, the GAB has received at least 24 applications for bookies–the legal kind.

Bautista doesn’t know how long he’ll stay at the GAB–that’s up to the Administration–but while he’s a Commissioner, he said he hopes to assist Chairman Eduardo Villanueva in any way he can, for the good of professional sports and in government’s best interests.

Bautista said he’d like the GAB to issue licenses to tennis pros and golf caddies, too. But as regards caddies, he’s not thinking of taxing them to the standard tune of P300 a year–instead, he’s toying with the idea of asking membership clubs to pay the fees in their behalf. He said the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) delivers about P9 Million a year as the GAB’s three percent share of revenues–as stipulated by the law– and is the biggest contributor to the government agency’s coffers.

My impression of Bautista is he’d like to be remembered as a government official with a big heart–like his uncle and idol Sen. Revilla. Let’s see if the work he does at the GAB justifies it.

Tomorrow, find out what’s on Montinola’s mind after the UAAP basketball season.