Sweet sweep for Purefoods

Congratulations to the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs for sweeping the Alaska Aces 4-0 in winning the All-Filipino Cup 2010. Their 10 point margin in the last game is the biggest win in the series. The 2nd and 3rd games were just 1 point wins and both came from questionable calls or non-calls in the end game. But this last win is also the sweetest because they won it in a clear and uncontroversial fashion. They deserve this title.

Alaska came out flat in the series, unable to match the energy of the supposedly tired Hotdogs. Wala pa ring tatalo sa Alaska?

It looks like my son 7-yr old Popoy will also be an avid sports fan. He roots for Purefoods. He took an interest in the game because of the fine semifinal series against SMB. To keep his interest I told him I'm for Alaska. Now he has bragging rights till the next championships.

PLAK! Hindi lahat pera ang katapat

Manny Villar thinks that everyone has a price. Unfortunately, Enrile, Erap and now Gordon, prove that this is not true. The way rumors circulate that he is GMA's hidden candidate make many believe it is not a rumor anymore because everyone's saying it. Villar sorely needs the services of someone like GMA's Defensor.

Gordon says he is fed up with Villar camp's propensity to use his money to get what he wants, including the presidency. "You can buy some of the people some of the time, but you can't buy all the people all of the time." The expected reaction from Villar is the usual hollow blanket denial. Enrile and Erap might have some credibility problems but somehow people believe them when they said Villar tried to buy them off. Now that Gordon is saying the same,  more people will be inclined to believe it.

It's Gordon's integrity against Villar's integrity. Let's see how Villar buys out the story.

PBA is still a San Miguel league

San Miguel Beer and Ginebra San Miguel may be out of the finals but there is still a San Miguel company competing for the crown. Purefoods is enjoying a 3-0 lead over Alaska in a best of seven affair. It could have been 2-1 in favor of Alaska if not for questionable coaching and inconsistent officiating. Tim Cone himself admitted bad coaching did them in. But he was being modest in taking command responsibility. He was not to blame. Blame falls squarely on the assistant coaches' failure to plot defensive and offensive plays down the stretch. Joel Banal, Dickie Bachman and Trillo do not match the scouting and planning skills of their Purefoods counterparts.

Then there is the sh*tty officiating. In game 2, there was no foul at all no matter what angle you look at the final play. Yet one was called and Kerby made the decisive free throw. The correct call in that dying situation is a no call. Purefoods benefited in that miscall.

In Alaska's final offensive thrust in game 3 there was a clear foul made on Miller and calling one would be justifiable. A no call is OK if we go by the reasoning why there should be no foul in game 2's last play. But this time Purefoods, once again, benefited from the no-call.

Coincidence? Or not.

Pacquiao vs Clottey ticket sales slow

Two weeks before the event, tickets for Pacquiao vs Clottey fight move slower than the previous Pac bestsellers. At SM malls they offer a complimentary cinema pass when you buy a Pac-Clottey ticket. I counted the number of tickets sold thus far at an SM cinema as indicated by the blocked markings on the seat plan. I counted less than fifty.

Maybe because many feel Pacman will win handily. Odd at Las Vegas stand at 5-1. Arum had to come out and say Clottey can upset Manny, just to generate some interest. At a boxing forum, nobody wants a sig bet against Pacman unlike his fights before when many are willing to risk two months of annoyance in posting up Pac sigs. At Club Filipino, I heard tickets cost less than 500 pesos including buffet breakfast and sales are still slow.

Maybe fans will just watch the the numerous free showings that will be sponsored by candidates. This is election season after all. I should have thought of that when I bought tickets yesterday.

Who do we trust?

A survey says Villar is the most trusted presidential bet. We have to take into account that the (Villar commissioned?) survey was held just before the C5 controversy boiled over. I'm sure his trust ranking plummeted after that cowardly denial of his wrongdoing. I'm curious how his trust rating stands now after Winnie Monsod exposed his culpability in clear and simple terms.

Meanwhile, Noynoy is among the most trusted Filipino in an independent survey by the Reader's Digest. He was bested only by non-politicians Rosa Rosal, Lea Salonga, Jessica Soho and Tony Meloto. Noynoy is the top politician in the survey done late last year. Villar is in 60th place in the list of 80 influential Filipino personalities ranked based upon the public’s perceived trustworthiness. Rounding out the bottom are GMA, Erap, and Hayden Kho.

Many different survey results are being flaunted by the different camps. Who among the survey firms do we trust? One statistic I trust is that 83% of all statistics is made up, including this one.

But who among the candidates do we trust, really? I don't trust the unnaturally-jet-black hair and the botox-filled face of the one with C5 at taga.