Support pours in for Mike Cup

The first First Gentleman’s Cup, scheduled Thursday at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club’s West course, continued to "receive tremendous response."

"We in the organizing committee are very elated to announce that the tournament continues to receive tremendous response," overall chairman Col. Tony Cabangon Chua said yesterday.

"Sponsors and golfers are supporting it since they believe it is for a worthy cause. The list is long to mention all of them. We would just like to thank them in advance."

Jose Miguel ‘Mike’ Arroyo, whose birthday falls on June 27 expressed his gratitude to the people involved particularly to Cabangon Chua.

The First Gentleman also said that he "readily agreed to be associated with the tournament because the beneficiaries are the youth, who are out of school."

Arroyo’s golfing buddies are holding this event for the benefit of Project Oyster, whose acronym means "Out-of-School Youth Serving Towards Economic Recovery."

Project Oyster is an emergency employment program headed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in coordination with the Philippine National Police.

"In other words, we are staging the tournament to raise funds for our out-of-school youth throughout the country," Cabangon Chua said. "What ever amount we raise will go a long way for them."

Wack Wack general manager Salvador Malbarosa, the tournament’s secretariat chairman, said yesterday that they are expecting 65 teams to take part.

"Three players form a team. Team entry fee is P100,000 while individual player entry fee is P50,000," Malbarosa said. "Handsome prizes are at stake."

Aside from Cabangon Chua and Malbarosa, others involved in the event are ways and means committee chairman Jack K-C Ng and co-chairman Jimmy Tang and Alfonso Sly.

Wack Wack board member Pablo Soon is the tournament chairman while Wack Wack golf director Bones Floro is the tournament director.