It is just three days away from the kick off of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship in China, which serves as the qualifier for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Gilas Pilipinas will be playing in Group B for the first round, which will be in a single round robin format. Also in the same group are Middle Eastern teams Kuwait and first timer Palestine, and East Asian qualifier Hong Kong. The top 3 teams will advance to the next round and will be joined by the top 3 teams of Group A.
Last week, Vice President Jejomar Binay agreed to speak in front of the students of University of the Philippines Los Banos about political transparency and social transformation in the Philippines. Things got more interesting during the open forum where the students did not hesitate to ask questions to the presidentiable, as seen in this video from Rappler's YouTube Channel :
Apparently, at the start of the discussion, students shouted "Sample! Sample!" since this portion came after an intermission number. ABS-CBN reported in its website that the students shouted "Trapo! Trapo!" which means traditional politician in local political lingo. This prompted some netizens to react negatively to the students of UPLB.
The UPLB University Student Council released in its Facebook page an open letter to the news agency, demanded a public apology by wrongly accussing the studentry of such action :
I really applaud this act of UPLB USC for standing for the students against irresponsible journalism. This prompted students and alumni of the university to take the fight to social media, sharing the post more than 7,000 times.
The hashtag #ABSCBNSaySorryToUPLB trended in Twitter in the afternoon as well, just behind the hashtags used by Eat Bulaga and It's Showtime.
After several hours, ABS-CBN News posted an apology in its website and shared it in its Twitter account:
In its website, the following statement was posted :
I also applaud ABS-CBN News for giving the apology. I really hope that this incident has taught all news sites to gear towards responsible and accurate journalism.
The second season of the hit talent show Your Face Sounds Familiar premiered on a very good note last week. All celebrity ka-familiars delivered on their first performances.
But in the end it was comedian Eric Nicolas who won the nod of the judges and his fellow contestants. His portrayal of host Willie Revillame was really spot on, and from a far, he really looks like the comedian. He placed first with 42 points, a big 15 points ahead of 2nd placer Sam Concepcion.
The other celebrities who performed were Sam Concepcion as Eminem, Myrtle Sarrosa as Sandara Park, KZ Tandingan as Vina Morales, Kakai Bautista as Sia, Denise Laurel as Jennifer Lopez, Michael Pangilinan as George Michael and Kean Cipriano as Harry Styles of One Direction.
The final 12 members of Gilas Pilipinas that will try to get the ticket to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games has been named by Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas. The announcement came on the night of the deadline of the final team rosters for the event which will happen in 2 weeks time.
The Gilas pool has just came back from a silver medal finish from the 2015 Jones Cup in Taiwan and is now preparing for the inaugural 2015 MVP Cup which is their final preparation before the Asian Championship in China.
The final 12 players are Gilas 2.0 holdovers Ranidel de Ocampo, Marc Pingris, Gabe Norwood and Jayson Castro; veterans Asi Taulava and Dondon Hontiveros, Sonny Thoss, Matt Ganuelas, Gilas rookies JC Intal, Calvin Abueva and Terence Romeo and naturalized player Andray Blatche.
NBA sophomore Jordan Clarkson was initially in the list but has not yet been given the green light by FIBA to play as a natural born citizen is out of the final line up. There is also schedule conflicts due to the preparations for the upcoming NBA season. But kudos to Clarkson for expressing his interest to play for the flag and country.
Big thank you as well to the other players in the pool for not turning your backs to the flag's call - Gary David, Aldrech Ramos, Jimmy Alapag (who I think will be an assistant coach) and PBA rookies Troy Rosario and Moala Tautua.
