Eagles of Excellence by Michelle Dayrit-Soliven (Phil Star July 26, 2009)

Eagles of Excellence
FAMILY JEWELS by Michelle Dayrit-Soliven Phil. Star, July 26, 2009


The Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame Foundation awards Chris Tiu with a plaque of recognition for his excellence in sports and in academics. Handing him the award are ASHOF chairman Victor Sison, Michael Escaler and Tito Panlilio.
Upon his recent graduation, the Ateneo Sports Hall of Fame (ASHOF) honored a prodigious young Ateneo alumnus for his recent achievement as an excellent athlete, honor student and his success as a mass media personality. His name is Chris Tiu, definitely a certified well-rounded handsome eagle.

In that ASHOF recognition ceremony, it was interesting to discover that Chris Tiu follows a pedigreed line of noteworthy Ateneo alumni who earlier lived and pursued a highly successful well-rounded regimen.

These eagles lived and breathed mens sana in corpore sano, a sound mind in a sound body, in its purest and highest standard. Truly, they are excellent examples of excellence.

Chris Tiu is in good company. Ateneo has produced many outstanding well-rounded honor student-athletes. Of a much older generation, there was Jose Rizal, a champion fencer-summa cum laude-national hero combined. There was Ambrosio Padilla, an Olympic cager-bar topnotcher-senator and Luis “Moro” Lorenzo, national cager-honor student-prosperous businessman.

Of a younger generation, there are Ateneo Sports Hall of Famers who were honor students and now highly successful in their professional or business pursuits. Consider Arben Santos, Michael Escaler, Cristino “Tito” Panlilio, Edmidio “Boy” Ramos, Gregorio “Ogie” Narvasa, IT professional Edwin Chow, top banker Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola and Juan “Johnny” Velasquez of the popular Spirit of ’67 fame.

It is interesting to note that all these well-rounded eagles were Jesuit-trained from prep to college. It is definitely this valuable academic foundation that has made it possible for them to be honor students in this tough educational institution.

Here are their brief stories:
Arben Santos
A true blue Atenean, shipping man and Management Engineering graduate Arben Santos was an all-around athlete playing varsity basketball, football, softball and track and field in the late ’60s. In high school, for overall athletic prowess, he was chosen Athlete of the Year. To this day, he is the only Atenean known to have joined four varsity sports. In 1968, he scored the winning goal to bring the NCAA football championship to Ateneo.
Arben is the owner of his own shipping company, Southwest Maritime. He also owns five Japan-built LPG vessels chartered by Shell. He managed the Ateneo senior basketball team from 1998 to 2005, and produced the 2002 champion team.

Michael Escaler
Between 1967 to 1972 was the golden era of NCAA track and field competitions. The cheering crowd from different NCAA schools would fill the Rizal Memorial Track Stadium. Michael, an AB Economics honorable mention graduate and president of the Student Catholic Action, completely dominated the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dash, and from high school to college, Michael was unbeaten in the sprints. Michael eventually ran for the country in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Today, he is the owner of the country’s biggest sugar trading company, All Asian Countertrade, Inc. (ACCI) and is also chairman of PASUDECO sugar mill, and the San Fernando Electric Light & Power Company, Inc. (SFELAPCO).

Cristino “Tito” Panlilio
Like many star athletes of his time, Cristino “Tito” Panlilio was a multi-sports varsity player. He excelled in basketball and in athletics. Tito was a member of the NCAA College ’69 basketball champion team, and was a two-time NCAA all-star basketball team member.
At the end of the basketball season, he would practice for the high, broad and triple jumps, where he likewise reaped gold and silver medals in the NCAA track meets.
Tito, indefatigable in sports, is likewise a consistent honor student and an Ateneo MBA with distinction. He was perennial class president. Today, he is the president of Balibago Waterworks System, Inc. (BWSI), the biggest privately-owned provincial waterworks company. He is also a director of Maybank Philippines, Inc. and active in the Rotary Club of Makati and the upliftment of Filipino workmanship through Galing Pilipino Foundation.

Edmidio “Boy” Ramos
In his school days, Edmidio “Boy” Ramos was consistently on the top of his class, likewise winning in elocution, reading and mathematics. He also received the “Boy Scout of the Year” award. In college, he finished the Economics honors course.
He excelled in volleyball, having played for the juniors team that won the championship in the NCAA in 1973 and 1974. And again duplicating the feat in the seniors division in 1976 and 1977. These four championships may be hard to duplicate in the many years to come. As the team’s captain, he merited such awards as the “Most Valuable Player of the Ateneo NCAA” and “Outstanding Athlete” for volleyball.
In 2001, he joined Monark (the exclusive distributor of Caterpillar equipment) and five years later, became the current president. He is active in the Ateneo Alumni Affairs in raising funds for many alumni projects.

Gregorio “Ogie” Narvasa II
All throughout his life, lawyer Gregorio “Ogie” Narvasa II played championship basketball and was the MVP awardee in high school. Such accomplishment paved the way to his participation in the RP national basketball team which competed both in the Pesta Sukan Tournament in Singapore and the ABC Youth Basketball Tournament in Manila in 1978 and 1979.
In college, Ogie finished the Business Management honors program, then went to UP law school where he ranked eighth in his class and earned a membership to the prestigious Order of the Purple Feather honors society.
This founding partner of the noted Fortun Narvasa & Salazar Law Office was a consistent honor student and recipient of the prestigious Evelio Javier Award in 1977.
Despite his hectic schedule, Ogie, a young widower for eight years now, devotes much time in rearing his four growing children.

Edwin Chow
Edwin Chow finished his five-year BS Management Engineering course in four-and-a-half years while finding himself in the Dean’s List as well. At the same time, he garnered gold medals in the NCAA high jump event in the late ’70s, and a silver in the National Open.
He was also in Gintong Alay in 1981. Edwin is also a NCAA gold medalist in the hurdles event. For his achievements in track and field for the Ateneo, he will be inducted into the ASHOF this August 2009.
Edwin is presently the GM of Lawson Philippine Solutions & Service Center and finds fulfillment in proving that the Filipino can be the best in computer programming.

Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola III
The well-respected and multi-awarded banker Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola III has studied and worked hard to be where he is now--as president of BPI.
Another true blue Atenean, Gigi is an MBA Harvard graduate. At the Ateneo, he finished Management Engineering, cum laude, and was valedictorian of his high school class ’68. He is a member of the Ateneo ’66 NCAA champion softball team and the ’67 NCAA Ateneo champion volleyball and golf team. To this day, Gigi maintains a near-single-digit golf handicap, a mean feat by itself.
In banking, the legacy he leaves to society is to make banking more accessible and affordable through alternative channels such as the ATM, phone and Internet.
Having spent a year in Paris as an exchange student, Gigi has maintained close cultural and business ties with France and was even conferred the honor of “Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur” by the French government in 2007.

Juan “Johnny” Velasquez
Juan “Johnny” Velasquez is a top student-athlete-executive/entrepreneur, and in his midlife, attained a highly satisfying pursuit that of music artistry.
Johnny is the dashing vocalist of the lively Aliw awardee Spirit of ’67 band. But little do they know that he is a Stanford University MBA graduate after finishing AB Economics, cum laude.
In high school, he was a member of the NCAA 1966 Ateneo softball champion team, the golf team and a prominent cast member of Ateneo’s numerous annual drama productions--a certified well-rounded Atenean.
Today, Johnny is into property development, agribusiness ventures and heads a BPO operation of Solegy LLC, a New York company. Johnny believes Ateneo trained him for a higher purpose in life as to look after society’s greater good.

Follow me on Twitter / ADMU vs UP

Wow!! I'm sure everyone expected a blowout game today between UP and Ateneo. But that's precisely why it's so fun to watch basketball! Because you cannot predict the outcome of games no matter what the odds may seem. Today, UP played very very motivated and inspired basketball. They did their homework and they were on fire in the 2nd half. Give credit to the coaching staff. Ateneo on the other hand was overconfident and came out flat. With an early lead in the 1st half, they failed to put away UP when they could have but instead allowed them to get back in the game and build on their momentum.

Anyway, it's one of those games where valuable lessons are learned! A reality check and wake up call for the Blue eagles! It's fine... there's still a long way to go in the season. Besides, "Ateneo" made it to the 2nd highest in the trending topics list on Twitter. That means Ateneo was the 2nd most talked about topic for a moment even ahead of Michael Jackson, Harry Potter, etc. Cool huh!?

By the way, you can follow me on twitter @chris_tiu that's the real me! I believe there are some fake accounts. :)

Chris

A Very Special Gift for my 24th

After viewing the 'Comment Moderation' page, i was shocked to see more than a hundred new comments / greetings just after checking it a few hours ago - which is actually the reason why I decided to write something new. It's very touching that most of you remembered my birthday or perhaps because my THANK YOU message came quite early in the day. Either way, thanks for the very very kind and flattering words! Except for those who greeted me a Happy 25th Birthday! I still posted it anyways :) Your support and appreciation truly encourages me to always go beyond giving my best. I honestly thought that once my stint with the Blue Eagles is done, you'd be all gone as well! Kidding! Glad you're still following this blogspot of mine despite my seldom posts.

I'm writing this at 2am of the 16th already. Thanks to all those who wished that i have a great birthday, well, i did! It was nothing less than amazing! I actually woke up pretty late today, around 10am because of a late night last night. If not for a phone call, i would have probably slept longer. I couldn't believe it! It was... the mayor! Apparently, he makes it a point to greet all the Kagawads under his watch on our birthdays. We spoke for less than a minute and he even called me Christian! Haha :) Then i checked my inbox and i had about 80 unread messages in one phone and 50 in the other. That was at 10am... more beautiful greetings came in as the day came along. I then attended the 12nn mass and bought food for the household to celebrate my b-day since all my family members were missing in action. Then i spent around 2 hours replying to every single message, at least those whose names are in my phonebook... but 2 hours was still not enough. I just tried to reply to a few at a time every time i could get the chance.

The highlight of my day was watching Game 6 of the SMB-Ginebra Finals in Araneta Coliseum with my idol, Amb. Kristie. I've always admired how she remains so grounded and genuinely friendly to each individual she meets along the way. What really struck me is her ability to pay close attention to details despite the extremity of the issues she has to face on a daily basis. Her energy is unbelievable! Sometimes, i can't keep up anymore :) I can go on and on with great things to say about Amb. Kristie. We have to be so thankful that she is assigned to us, a nation in great need of selfless leaders who place national interests on top of everything else. I think that was the best birthday gift this year, not the front row ticket to the game, but rather the chance to be in company with such a remarkable and inspiring individual.

Then of course, what better way to cap off the day with a sing-along night with my Tiu cousins in Redbox!

Chris

P.S. Thank you again for making me feel special and appreciated today... and everyday :) You are the very special gift! :)

Thank You

Here's a big THANK YOU to all of you for your greetings! I feel really touched that you remembered me in my special day. Hope you continue to pray for me that this coming year will be another great one filled with love and happiness. And also that I may remain grounded and make the right decisions in life :) Once again, thank you! Thank you! :)

Chris

CLEAR Men Future League

I want to apologize again for disappearing for almost a month. It's already UAAP season and for sure you will be hearing from me more often. I can't wait for the season to kick off especially since Ateneo will be playing FEU in its first game - i think it will be a preview of the championship series for this season. Uh-oh! i think i just motivated all the other teams especially DLSU and UE.

Anyway, since we're talking about basketball again, some of you probably have read the press releases of my new show that's going to air this Sunday, July 12 on Solar Sports and CS9. It will air every Sunday at 8pm on CS9 with replays on Tuesdays at 9pm and Saturdays at 5pm on BTV. It's a basketball reality show called The Clear Men Future League. I will be the host for this show, together with Sharon Yu and Coach Benjie Paras who will be dealing more closely with the players.

There are 6 players per team. Each half runs for 10 minutes. Hundreds of teams participated from the different legs all over the Philippines (Baguio, Laguna, Cebu, Davao and Metro Manila). Most of the participants are current or previous college varsity players. Then, 10 of the top teams will enter the finals to be held in Manila, all aiming at the prize to be proclaimed Champion of The 1st Clear Men Future League.

Hope you guys can watch and support!! Thank you :)

Oh btw, Happy Birthday Mom!

Chris