Despite being wheelchair-bound, a disabled Filipino student in the United States showed that he can still be an achiever.

In an e-mail, Nila Villa-San Pedro of Washington, New Jersey told GMANews.TV the story of her 18-year-old nephew Bryan Villa who, despite having a disability, still excelled in his studies and was even recognized for his achievements.

“I thought it would be nice to share the achievement of a young Pinoy with muscular dystrophy [whose] disease hasn’t stopped him from winning an award,” said San Pedro.

Muscular dystrophy is a group of hereditary diseases that weakens the muscles that move the human body.

Villa won in the technology category of the Council for Exceptional Children’s “Yes I can! Awards.”

“I just want to share how happy [and] proud we are [of] our nephew Bryan. Isa lang itong katunayan na ang Pinoy ay may anking katangian … kahit na may kapansanan,” said San Pedro.

[I just want to share how happy and proud we are [of] our nephew Bryan. This is proof that Filipinos can still excel despite having disabilities.]

The CEC annually honors 27 students with disabilities who have excelled in specific categories. The awarding ceremony for this year will take place in Seattle on April 3.

Anna Baker, CEC public relations associate, told the Jersey Journal that the CEC honors children who have gone “above and beyond.”

“The ‘Yes I Can!’ Awards were developed to honor students with disabilities who have achieved great things. Bryan exemplifies the spirit of these awards with his hard work and perseverance,” said CEC President Kathleen Puckett in the report.

When Villa was born in the Philippines, he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. His family moved to the United States when he was six years old.

Two years later, he started studying at A. Harry Moore School in New Jersey.

“I have learned how to speak out for what I need to complete my goals and become a mature young man,” said Villa in an autobiographical statement.

He reportedly plans to attend the Hudson County Community College and major in studio art after finishing high school.

After two years, Villa said he wants to transfer to New Jersey City University, major in graphic design and eventually use his graphic design skills in an advertising career.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So ended his roller-coaster ride in the Corus Chess 2009 emerging on top of Group C at the of the 13-round tournament at the the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.

A final-round draw against second seed David Howell of England on Monday gave So 9.5 points, a full-point ahead of Sweden’s Tiger Hillarp Persson and Anish Giri of Russia.

An eighth-round loss to GM Frank Holzke of Germany nearly cost So the title but put up a solid game by stringing up four straight wins before halving the point with Howell.

The 15-year-old pride of Cavite, who is also the defending Dubai Open champion, was already the virtual champion after defeating erstwhile leader GM Tiger Hillarp Persson of Sweden in the 12th and penultimate round.

Hillarp eventually finished tied for second spot with GM-elect Giri.

Overall, So finished with seven wins, five draws and a defeat in the annual tournament.

“Masayang-masaya po ako sa panalo kong ito ngayong bagong taon,” said So, who also thanked his parents William and Leny for their continued support.

So opened the tournament with a win over GM Friso Nijober of the Netherlands then drew with No.7 GM Oleg Romanishin of Ukraine, No.11 FM Anish Giri of Russia and No.4 GM Abhijeet Gupta of India in the second, third and fourth rounds.

He scored consecutive wins in the fifth and sixth rounds beating No.8 GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela and No.6 GM Manuel Leon Hoyos of Mexico, respectively.

So then drew with WGM Dronavaili Harika of India in the seventh round with his lone loss coming from Holzke in the eighth. He closed out the tournament with four straight wins before halving the point with Howell in the last round.

In Group A, GM Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine bagged the top honor while Italian-American GM Fabiano Caruana pocketed the Group B crown. GMANews.tv

Filipino Jess Espanola has led a very colorful life.

Espanola has been working as assistant director for the popular American animated sitcom “The Simpsons” for seven years now. The job earned him an Emmy award last year.

However, Espanola had to go through hardships in life before realizing his American dream. Espanola said he led an impoverished life in Pampanga province.

He said that since he was five years old, he knew that he already loved sketching.

“Five years old pa lang ako, nag-drawing na ako. Hindi ko pa nasusulatan ng pangalan ko… ang notebook ko puro drawing ng Batman at Robin,” he said.

Espanola’s talent in drawing landed him a scholarship at the University of the Philippines, one of the premier schools in the Philippines.

He was also able to work for Fil-Cartoon, Inc. as an animator before he moved to Los Angeles in 1994.

His first job was to work on an American television animated series, King of the Hill. From there, his ascend to the animated world in the US began.

In the 90s, he was named the assistant director for Futurama, an animated American sitcom. In 2002, he was appointed as the assistant director of “The Simpsons.”

“This is the happiest moment in my life. Talagang tuwang-tuwa ako noong lumalakad ako paakyat sa stage. Parang hindi ako nakatapak sa floor,” he said.

Espanola attributed his success to his trainings when he was still in the Philippines. Abs-CbnNews.Com

MANILA, Philippines—From dusty back lots of Cagayan de Oro City to the hallowed grounds of the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Australia, Filipino tennis sensation Francis Casey Alcantara has come a long way.

On Saturday, the once scrawny 16-year-old who had to bulk up over the holidays, became the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam event after pairing with a Taiwanese for the boys doubles title of the Australian Open tennis championships.

Alcantara, known to friends as Niño, paired with 17-year-old Cheng-Peng Hsieh to demolish Mikhal Biryukov of Russia and Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan, 6-4, 6-2, in the final match to achieve what no Filipino has done before. En route to the championship, the duo did not drop a single set and only twice did they have to play a tiebreak.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m very happy. I guess it still has to sink in,” Alcantara, the Philippines’ top-ranked junior player and No. 20 in the world, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer over the phone from the bus back to his hotel.

Filipino youngster Felix Barrientos reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon juniors singles in 1985, the year he was ranked No. 1 in the world in the junior circuit. In 1953 tennis great and Hall of Famer Felicisimo “Mighty Mite” Ampon won the Wimbledon Plate—a tournament for first- and second-round losers of the Wimbledon mens singles.

Alcantara’s triumph drew appreciation from local and foreign-based Filipino tennis fans who swarmed the Australian Open website with a deluge of congratulatory messages.

The doubles title more than made up for his first-round upset loss to unseeded Swede Daniel Berta in the boys’ singles where Alcantara was seeded 10th.

New teamup

In the doubles he and Hsieh, last year’s champion with a different partner, were seeded seventh as a pair. The Asian pair, which teamed up only this year, bowed out in the second round of the tune-up event, the Nottingham Invitational, two weeks back.

“The general plan was to be aggressive and to attack the net,” said his coach Junjun Toledo. “The opponents are bigger so we can’t afford to play their game.”

That’s what the 5-foot-7 Alcantara and the 6-foot Hsieh did as they broke their opponents right in the opening game and held on to take the first set.

Alcantara said they were prepared for a tough time in the second set, but after posting a 5-1 lead, he said he could already smell the victory.

3rd Grand Slam title

The match was over in just 44 minutes in the sweltering Australian summer heat, which two days earlier reached 45 degrees Celsius and caused the quarterfinal match between them and German’s Kevin Krawietz and Dominik Schulz to be postponed.

It was Hsieh’s third Grand Slam boys doubles title. He won in Melbourne and in Wimbledon last year. The 15th seeded Taiwanese was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the boys singles draw.

Alcantara is the eldest of three children. He learned to play tennis from his father who passed away six years ago.

“I dedicate this to him,” said Alcantara whose mother Sarah, a government employee, was there cheering him at the sidelines.

Davis Cup prospect

It was also an advanced birthday gift for the young netter who will turn 17 on Feb. 4. They are scheduled to arrive home late Sunday and return to his studies at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City where he is a high school senior.

Already, there was talk of him getting a slot in the Philippine Davis Cup training team, something Toledo welcomed.

“That’s great news, I played in the Davis Cup before and I know how it will help him with his confidence,” said Toledo. His stint in the Australian Open was sponsored by Cebuana Lhuillier and tennis patron Oscar Hilado.

It was complete domination for Alcantara and Hsieh, who combined to make 87 percent of their first serves against Biryukov and Uchiyama’s 72 percent. They also posted 60 percent accuracy in second serves against their opponents’ 41 percent.

Soon after Alcantara fell to Berta (3-6, 4-6) in the boys singles, his tandem with Hsieh went full steam ahead, beating Toni Androic of Croatia and Sudarwa Sitaram of India (6-3, 6-4) in the first round and James Chaudry of Britain and John Morrisey of Ireland (6-0, 6-3) in the second round.

They also hurdled Krawietz and Schulz, 6-4, 7-6 (5), and booted out Austria’s Maximilian Neuchrist and Tristan Samuel Weissborn, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in the semi-finals to barge into the championship match. Inquirer.Net

MANILA, Philippines—A Filipino group named Rags2Riches has won the grand prize in a worldwide business plan competition for micro and small entrepreneurs. It helped 300 women in the Payatas dump make a decent living from weaving scraps of cloth into fashionable products.

Rags2Riches topped the Business in Development (BiD) Challenge held in the Netherlands. Through its help, the women who used to earn P1 per foot rug now make as much as P12,000 a month making rugs, bags, wine holders and other products designed by fashion icon Rajo Laurel.

Their products are fashioned from scraps of cloth that end up in the 22-hectare dump in Quezon City.

Rags2Riches was among the 24 entrepreneurs from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Mozambique and the Philippines who took part in the BiD Challenge.

Its leader, Fr. Xavier Alpasa, SJ, had tears in his eyes when he accepted the award and the prize money of 20,000 euros (P1,237,400) during the ceremony on Tuesday in Rotterdam.

Use prize money

Rags2Riches is expected to use the prize money to construct a bigger working area for the women, purchase more sewing machines and increase the working capital to cope with the growing demand for its high-end bags and other products.

With the extra funds, the group is optimistic that it will hit its profit target this year of $40,000. (The targets were $7,000 in 2007 and $15,000 in 2008.)

The number of workers is also expected to rise to as many as 500 next year.

The ceremony was part of the weeklong Creative Factory, where the finalists from around the world got together to discuss ways to help push each other’s cause.

“When they mentioned Rags2Riches, I was instantly in tears. And while walking to the stage, people were hugging me as they also believed that Rags2Riches should win,” Alpasa, of Ateneo de Manila University’s Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, said in an e-mail to the Inquirer.

“The chair of the jury then read the rationale for choosing Rags2Riches and as he read, I continued crying onstage. I was very emotional as I remembered all the Rags2Riches nanays (mothers) continuously praying for this win,” Alpasa said.

Direct to the market

Rags2Riches has come a long way from 2007, when Ateneo students, alumni and professors, as well as prominent alumni of De La Salle University and Simbahang Lingkod ng Bayan, first met to help an initial group of 24 women from Payatas make more money from rug-making.

The group was formed out of concern for the women, who were not getting their fair share of the profit from their painstaking work.

The young professionals and concerned citizens behind Rags2Riches did away with the middlemen or traders—who got the lion’s share from the sales—by directly linking the women with the market.

The women are not only making more money. They are also helping protect the environment because they use only scrap cloth collected from the dump in the production of Rags2Riches’ growing list of products that are making a mark in high-end markets here and abroad.

It is estimated that more than 50 tons of scrap cloth have been transformed into affordable works of art, including yoga mats, wallets and eyeglass cases.

Social impact

Rags2Riches bested 18 finalists from around the world that took part in the competition of the best business plans for social development, which was organized by the BiD Network based in Amsterdam.

“The jury cited the combination of creativity, ability to connect the rich and the poor, the solid background and experience of the entrepreneurs, the remarkable results and the social impact,” Alpasa said.

Rags2Riches and EchoStore, which retails products made by cooperatives and other social enterprises, were the two finalists chosen to represent the Philippines in the international competition.

Eye on European market

The two business plans won in the Philippine BiD Challenge held in November 2008, which was hosted by the Philippine Business for Social Progress, with Citi Foundation as a major sponsor.

“The award and the entire BiD experience have opened many doors to the European market that we will aggressively pursue through exports within the year,” Alpasa said.

The runners-up in the BiD Challenge were a project from Bolivia involving organic and hypoallergenic baby food made with Andean cereals, and one from Colombia that dealt with converting coffee waste into biomass to produce bio-ethanol and bio-fertilizer. Inquirer.net

Right in the heart of Georgetown in Washington D.C., beside upscale shops and vibrant restaurants, is a salon and spa that bears the name of Erwin Gomez.

Famous among Washington D.C. bigwigs and Hollywood celebrities, not too many know that this 40-something artist is a Filipino.

Allure magazine has named him one of the country’s top make-up artists. He has glammed up Grammy awardees and A-list stars from Eva Longoria to Rosario Dawson to Kate Walsh.

But he knew that US President Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration would be like no other. So, Gomez wrote to First Lady Michelle Obama and offered his services for free.

“Sinulat ko, I am an immigrant. I am a business owner in Georgetown and I voted for you even if I knew my taxes were gonna go up. I didn’t care. I wanna be able to show you the quality of my work. And I don’t wanna charge you because the economy is hurting right now,” he said, reciting the contents of his letter.

“At the Blair House [US President's Guest House], I had the opportunity to massage her [First Lady's] hand. I massaged her hand, Michelle Obama, but I got hired to do Michelle Obama’s sister-in-law and Michelle’s brother.”

Working for the best

Gomez was 17 when he got into the make-up business. And since he wanted to work for the best, Gomez walked into Chanel and insisted he work for the company.

“I wanted to be in the make-up business but they wouldn’t hire me because I was a man. It was very conservative, and I had to prove myself. Within three months I showed them I could really do this and deliver,” he said.

He later worked for other companies like Chevy Chase, Elizabeth Arden, Prescriptives, and others.

Twenty years ago, his dream came true. He moved to Washington where he opened his own salon and spa. Here, he’s known for perfectly-waxed eyebrows that cost $55 on the first visit and make-up that is picture perfect for $155.

“During the inauguration, we were the only salon that was open 24/7. We spent the night here, upstairs, with my staff. We took care of the CNN anchor people at three in the morning, we did the Oprah show, and also we did the Latin ball. But we didn’t raise our prices like everybody did,” he recalled.

His salon is unaffected by the economic slump. And he hopes to keep it that way by not raising prices and giving money-saving tips to his clients.

Gomez has been a make-up artist for almost 27 years. He is the only Filipino business owner in Georgetown, and after his work at the inauguration, more success awaits this Filipino. Abs-CbnNews.com

MANILA, Philippines – Two GMA Network programs won gold medals in the International Television Broadcasting Awards of the 2009 New York Festivals (NYF).

GMA Network bagged a Gold World Medal in the category of Coverage of an Ongoing Story for Jiggy Manicad’s 24 Oras coverage of Cpl. Angelo Abeto, who was killed in a mortar explosion last year.

The network’s primetime news, 24 Oras, also received the Silver World Medal in the Best Newscast Category for the “Lanao Attacks” coverage of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s assault in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte, on August 18, 2008.

Reporter’s Notebook’s “Pinays for Export: The Asian Sex Trafficking Trail” took home the Bronze World Medal for Best Public Affairs Program.

The Gold World Medal Award for the Biography/Profiles Category went to QTV-11, the network’s sister station, for its “Inno Sotto: A Special Fashion Documentary.”

QTV-11’s Chef to Go with its “Pesco Vegetarian Meal” episode bagged the Bronze World Medal for the Magazine Format Category. GMANews.tv

MANILA, Philippines—This police officer is only too glad to disappoint those who look down on Filipinos.

Senior Supt. Benigno Durana Jr. seizes every opportunity to disprove the seeming First World impression that the Filipino could not do anything beyond the menial.

And he does so in Caucasia as deputy chief strategist at the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), helping reform the restive nation’s traditionalist police force through lessons he learned back home.

“This is my opportunity to disappoint people who look down on Filipinos. This is the best time for us to prove them wrong,” said 44-year-old Durana, a Philippine Military Academy cum laude graduate, who has spent 18 years in the police force.

Show the best

“It’s an opportunity to show the best in the Filipino, when many foreigners look down on Filipinos. But no, we can do better than you. Let’s not be trapped in the mentality that ‘I am just a Filipino.’ So what if I have this dark skin? I can deliver,” said an impassioned Durana in an interview in Camp Crame’s Program Management Office, the police force’s reform arm he had helped pioneer in 2005.

Durana, once the police chief of crime-plagued Cubao District in Quezon City and the provincial director of tourist haven Aklan, joined UNOMIG in September last year as deputy senior police adviser. The six-month tour followed his stint as chief of strategic information for the UN contingent in East Timor.

Russia-Georgia war

One of three Filipino policemen contracted by UNOMIG, Durana arrived in the former Soviet state when the dust had yet to settle between Russia and Georgia, which engaged in armed conflict over the latter’s breakaway regions—south Ossetia and Abkhazia.

UNOMIG was born 15 years earlier to oversee Georgia and its breakaway regions’ compliance with a 1993 ceasefire agreement.

The observer mission also maintains a ceasefire zone between Georgia and its separatist territories.

Community-oriented police

Arriving on the heels of heavy bombardment in the conflict zone, Durana was assigned to help reform Georgia’s police from brute force to community-oriented policing, a perspective he had introduced in previous assignments in the Philippine National Police.

With Durana on the mission are Supt. Jose Rony Forro, also a police adviser, and Dr. Nerino Daciego, a Russian-speaking superintendent at the PNP Crime Laboratory.

But the Filipino policemen had no worries about their security, citing the UN’s role as a neutral organization in the conflict.

“We are out of harm’s way. We are not there to enforce the law, but we are there to ensure that the peace agreement is observed by both parties,” said Durana, who obtained a doctorate in Peace and Security Administration at the Bicol University.

Problem as opportunity

By “looking at every problem as an opportunity,” Durana is at the frontline of orienting Georgia police to the kind the United Nations wants its member-states to pursue: “Democratic policing, where officers do their job to serve the people, not to impress their bosses.”

“I would like to help them realize that the ultimate goal of policing is to improve quality of life, not just catch criminals, making arrests one after another,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Jan. 16, on the eve of his flight back to Georgia to finish his tour that ends in April.

Citing the PNP’s exposure to training under Western expertise, Durana said: “The PNP has a lot to offer to these emerging law enforcement agencies.”

Public servant

This turnaround from commando to public servant is what the PNP has also been aiming to instill in its 120,000 members through the Integrated Transformation Program (ITP), which Durana helped put together three years ago.

The program encourages the development of leaders at all PNP levels, from the headquarters to the station “because the PNP [head office] can’t provide you with everything,” said Durana, who faced this first-hand as city and provincial police chief.

“The police in Georgia are very mission-oriented, very military, traditionalist in approaching their job because of the security environment. Right now, we’re starting to build rapport first,” he said.

Lessons are packaged as bite-size ideas to avoid overwhelming the usually stern-faced Georgian police officers, who are used to gauging success based on their arrest count.

“They won’t care about what you know unless they know you care,” he said.

Quality circles

Borrowing a PNP practice, Durana also organized “quality circles,” an informal discussion group proven more effective than traditional lectures to translate ideas into “doables.”

He learned this during his years as top cop in the Cubao commercial area, known to be a hub of robbers, pickpockets and illegal trade. Through his campaign “Police Cubao, Love Kayo,” Durana helped improve public perception of cops and encouraged community participation in fighting crime.

Within his term, from 2003 to 2005, Durana also enforced the “No Take” policy, a campaign against bribery known to have been rampant at the Cubao police station at the time.

Bribe offers

And to show that he practiced what he was advocating, Durana said he constantly rejected several bribe offers from business establishments and illegal rings in the area, among them jueteng (illegal numbers game) operators, nightclub owners and illegal vendors.

Monthly offers ranged from P80,000 to P100,000.

In his last year at the station, Durana was among the “Country’s Outstanding Policemen in Service” in the national search of the Metrobank Foundation Inc. and the Rotary Club New Manila East. Also in 2005, Durana was declared Best Senior Police Commissioned Officer for Operations in all of Metro Manila.

Boracay

As police chief in Aklan from January 2007 until early last year, he imposed a centralized port system for commuter boats in Boracay, banning the usual practice of docking straight at the beach.

Despite resistance from stakeholders, Durana said he succeeded in enforcing the scheme and finally cleared the white sand coastline of docking boats.

“We should stop the “tama na yan, OK na yan” thinking,” said Durana, sharing a lesson by which he has been raising his children Miguel Christian, 14, and Kristina Mae, 12.

“Reform will take generations, but the seeds must be sown. Allow it to germinate and think about the future generations that will reap it,” he said. Inquirer.net

ILOILO CITY – Players from Barotac Nuevo town have broken the world record for marathon soccer by playing for over 35 hours.

Organizers and officials of the World Football Marathon (WFM) will meet today to finalize the documentation of the match, including the continuous video coverage of all the games, in order for the event to be certified by the Guinness World Records (GWR), Duffie Botavara, secretary general of the Iloilo Football Association, told The STAR.

“We are preparing the documentation and the records of the game for our efforts to be recognized,” he said, adding that for now, the record is unofficial.

Organizer Elmer Bedia, a former national player and Philippine’s Mr. Football in 1986, explained that a GWR certification in favor of the WFM is required to break the record set in Australia.

The soccer teams of Barotac Nuevo Comprehensive National High School (BNCNHS) and the Iloilo State College of Fisheries (ISCOF) played against each other for 35 hours and 20 minutes at the town’s public plaza.

The match began around 8:40 a.m. Friday and ended at around 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

A total of 19 games were played, each lasting for 45 minutes.

ISCOF prevailed over BNCNHS, 136-133, in what Botavara called “a tight match.”

“It wasn’t a giveaway match. Both teams played tight defense, the reason for the low score, unlike that in Australia,” he said, comparing their match to the one in Armidale, Australia, where Joeys Football Club won with about a hundred point-advantage over its opponent in a game that lasted for 32 hours and 50 minutes.

Of the 19 games played, ISCOF and BNCNHS each won eight matches, and tied in three.

“Although the players were already tired, they could have played one more game, had it not been for the coaches who decided to end the game,” Botavara said.

In fact, he added, the last game was very physical, with one player shoving his opponent at one point.

“Their intensity was so great they were still putting up tight defense up to the last match. It was so intense that the teams nearly got into a fight when one player shoved his opponent during the last game,” he said.

“I expected the players to only last until 8 a.m. Saturday because at around 2 a.m. that day, they were no longer running. Now I believe in the passion and commitment of our players,” Botavara stressed.

After the last game, 4th District Rep. Ferjenel Biron awarded the players from the two teams with cash and medals. Philstar.com