MANILA, Philippines – Thea Minor, a Fil-Am tennis player, had an early holiday celebration when she won three championship titles and three runner-up crowns in three separate junior tennis tournaments in New Zealand.

Minor, who was born and raised in Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), competed for the second straight year as a member of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Pacific Oceania Touring Team.

She was joined by fellow CNMI junior netters Rafael Jones and Christian Miller, and Pacific Oceania teammate Tarani Kamoe of Fiji.

Minor teamed up with Kamoe in the girls’ 14-and-under doubles to win three titles while also claiming second place honors in three singles events.

She began her New Zealand stint in the Coca-Cola Waikato Junior Open in Hamilton where she celebrated her 13th birthday last December 11 wining the 14-and-under doubles title with Kamoe.

The Minor-Kamoe tandem defeated Fiji’s Annie Shannon and hometown bet Toni Katipa in the girls’ 14-and-under doubles finals, 6-3, 6-1. Minor and Kamoe also entered the 16-and-under doubles finals but lost to the second seed pair of Kerry Hampton and Ellie Verran of New Zealand.

Minor, however, was not that lucky in the singles event where she lost in the quarterfinals of the 14- and 16-and-under divisions.

The Pacific Oceania Touring Team then headed to Gisborne, northeast of New Zealand’s capital of Wellington, for the second tournament which is the Poverty Bay East Coast Ray White Junior Championship where Minor once again teamed up with Kamoe to claim the 14-and-under doubles title.

Minor, however, was unlucky anew in the singles event, losing to Kamoe in the 14-and-under finals and in the consolation draw of the 16-and-under division.

She then capped her impressive stint in New Zealand with another doubles crown and a runner-up finish in the Auckland Christmas Tournament.

Her tested partnership with Kamoe earned the Pacific Oceania team a third doubles crown at the Scarbro Tennis Centre in Nicholson Park. Minor and Kamoe were unseeded in the tournament but scored a 6-1, 6-1 upset of the No.2 ranked pair of Georgina and Kirsty Hayr of Auckland.

Minor remained unlucky in the singles event suffering a 6-0, 6-0 defeat at the hands of top seed Louise Oxnevad of Queensland.

Aside from receiving certificates and medals, she also received a cash prize from Poverty Bay and Auckland tournaments..

The three tournaments attracted the best and upcoming junior players in the Pacific Oceania region, Australia and New Zealand where close to 600 participated.

Minor returns to Saipan to join her parents, Boyet and Joy, and sister Theecel for the Christmas holiday. Her father Boyet works as a civil engineer in an architectural firm since arriving in Saipan in the early 90s. GMANews.TV

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines – Seeing the Chinese collecting gold medals one after the other, Filipino Steven Luis Ngo put on a show of his own en route to the championship in the gold and spear event in the second World Junior Wushu Championship on Tuesday in Bali, Indonesia.

Not minding the Chinese’s 10-gold romp in the tournament, Ngo banked on a combination of grace, speed and power to garner 9.31 points and beat Indonesia’s Erwin Wijayanto.

The 15-year-old’s gold-medal effort in this event that gathered 60 teams from all over the world was the Filipino’s best finish since winning a bronze medal two years ago in Korea.

Ngo’s performance capped his impressive showing in the worlds, emerging as RP’s most bemedalled athlete after also securing a silver medal in straight sword event. Ngo lost the gold to Wijayanto by just a point.

The Nationals also clinched two more silver medals courtesy of Henson See and Francesca Bernasconi.

Bernasconi, a gold medalist in spear two years ago, earned a silver in broadsword. See also settled for second in the same event in the boys’ category.

It was a vindication of sorts for the Pinoy wushu bets, whose campaign was reportedly threatened by a lack of funding.

See was beaten by a Singaporean rival while Bernascono, the most decorated junior player of the country, was upstaged by a Chinese bet.

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines—A hip and energetic rendition of “Lady Marmalade” was what bowled over the judges of the International Choral Festival and Competition held recently in Busan, Korea.

Twenty girls and boys from Cagayan de Oro City’s Capitol University swayed while belting out high notes as the set of foreign judges, all authorities in music, and a largely Korean audience, clapped and rose in standing ovation.

The CU glee club won the gold prize as best in pop in this prestigious competition held yearly by the Korean Choral Institute. It bested 40 other choirs from 12 countries, including the famous choir from the University of Kentucky and the Manado choir from Indonesia.

Conductor Ritchie Asibal, a sleek young man of 30, won as best conductor, the first Filipino ever to get the title.

Two other Filipino entries, the University of the East choral group and the University of the Philippines chorale, won top prizes.

“We were diminutive compared to the other singers. One of the judges said, ‘Look at those Filipinos, they are small, thin and look like high school students, but their voices are so powerful,’” recounts Joseph Espadilla, the glee club’s tour manager.

“Among the other competitors, including the other Filipino choirs, we were the poorest. We had to beg for donations just to get to Korea. When we got there, we didn’t have enough money. It was all pressure at all fronts. So it was such a relief that we won,” Espadilla adds.

The group was awarded US$5,000 and a trophy, while Asibal received US$1,000.

Beyond stereotype

People who have heard and seen the choir describe their performance as beyond stereotype.

“I actually hate competitions. I never like the pressure. But with this performance, I just told the group to enjoy it, have fun,” Asibal says.

For the competition, the choral group sang three pieces—the upbeat “Lady Marmalade,” an ethnic song from the Cordillera titled “Kumala,” and the powerful “This is the Moment,” with Asibal doing the lead vocals.

In performing “Lady Marmalade,” the group had a rock-and-rhythm choreography, something that induced guffaws from the audience.

“This is the Moment” also impressed the judges because Asibal’s singing was not usually done by choir conductors.

Surprise victories

Espadilla says everyone was surprised to win because they knew that the other competitors had extensive experience in the field and had been all well-trained and well-funded.

“The others all had formal education in music, and even had doctorate degrees, major in voice, major in piano, etcetera. What we had are ordinary students taking up business administration, education … what chance did we have against them?” Espadilla says.

The best conductor award given to Asibal was also surprising because the Filipino defeated the Indonesian conductor who is a national artist in music and had won several individual titles in the past.

“We just made sure our performance will be fun, the audience and the judges might have felt that,” explains Asibal. “But the most important is that we always sing from the heart. That’s also the observation of one of the judges, that we sang from the heart, unlike other contestants who were more mechanical and technical.”

Patience, commitment

Local officials recognized the choir’s achievement and took pride in the fact that they defeated other more experienced and well-trained competitors.

Misamis Oriental Gov. Oscar Moreno, one of the choir’s benefactors, lauded the group for not giving up despite the difficulties in gathering enough funds.

Cagayan de Oro Mayor Constantino Jaraula also commended the group and promised to give more support for its future endeavors.

The National Commission on Culture and the Arts extended help, although belatedly, and has recognized the choir’s achievement by committing funding for its next engagements.

After winning, the choir immediately received invitations from other international festivals, including the Montana Music Festival to be held in summer next year in the United States.

“We almost gave up. We had very little time to prepare, barely six months. What made it worse was we also had to go out and sing to solicit money. We almost backed out,” recollects Asibal, hoping that their next competition will not be as stressful.

Asibal attributes their triumph to the patience and commitment of the whole group and the support of parents and the university officials. Inquirer.Net

Philippine Daily Inquirer

HONG KONG — A novel by Filipino author Miguel Syjuco, which touches on 150 years of often turbulent Philippines history, has won a major Asian literary prize, organizers said.

Syjuco’s “Ilustrado” was awarded the second annual Man Asian Literary Prize, which is open to novels from the region not yet published in English.

“Ilustrado seems to us to possess formal ambition, linguistic inventiveness and socio-political insight in the most satisfying measure,” the panel of three judges said in a statement, after awarding the $10,000 prize Thursday.

“Brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed, it covers a large and tumultuous historical period with seemingly effortless skill. It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humor.”

The story is a fictional account of a young Filipino investigating the life of his mentor Crispin Salvador, a real-life writer and thinker, after the man’s death.

It examines the disappearance of Salvador’s manuscript about the corruption behind rich Filipino families.

Syjuco beat off competition from fellow Filipino Alfred A. Yuson for “The Music Child,” Indian writers Kavery Nambisan for “The Story that Must Not be Told” and Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi for “The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay.”

Chinese writer Yu Hua was also shortlisted for “Brothers.”

The panel said the shortlist of five novels had shown the “great vitality” of the novel in a region “undergoing hectic and unexpected transformations.”

Last year’s inaugural prize was won by Chinese author Jiang Rong for his novel “Wolf Totem,” which has since been published by Penguin.

The prize is backed by the company that sponsors the prestigious Booker prize, based in Britain.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The Miele Guide was recently launched at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore, over an exquisite dinner prepared by three of Asia’s top chefs (whose restaurants made it to the Guide’s Top Ten list). The 350 guests comprised Asia’s most respected restaurateurs and chefs, plus some food writers.

The red book was creatively and literally served to each of the guests on a silver platter. The best part for us: Many Filipino restaurants were included in the list.

Here are Asia’s Top Ten Restaurants:

1. Iggy’s in Singapore
2. L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Hong Kong
3. Les Amis in Singapore
4. Gunther’s in Singapore
5. Mozaic in Indonesia
6. Robuchon a Galera in Macau
7. Garibaldi in Singapore
8. Yung Kee in Hong Kong
9. Hutong in Hong Kong
10. Antonio’s Fine Dining in Tagaytay, Philippines

The Filipino restaurants that made it are: Margarita Fores’ Pepato in Greenbelt, Jessie Sincioco’s Le Soufflé in Rockwell, Ariel Manuel’s Lolo Dad’s in Manila, Rolando Laudico’s Bistro Filipino at the Fort and La Cocina de Tita Moning near Malacañang.

Restaurants from hotels such as Prince Albert at the Intercon; Heat and Shang Palace in Shangri-La, Makati; and The Fireplace and Li Li at the Hyatt in Malate, were also included.

There was also a good showing of mall restaurants: from Greenbelt are Sugi, People’s Palace, M Cafe, Via Mare, Italiannis and The Chateau Group’s Sentro 1771 and Chateau 1771; from Serendra there’s Larry Cruz’ Abe; and at the Podium, Casa Armas.

ISCAHM’s Aubergine at the Fort also made it, as well as Old Swiss, near the Manila Pen. Pasay Road favorites El Cirkulo and Tsukiji were also on the list; as well as Salcedo Village’s favorites, Elbert’s Steak Room and Apartment 1B. Three restaurants from Tagaytay (or near Tagaytay) were also included: Sonya’s Garden, Kanin Club and Antonio’s Fine Dining.

Disappointed

How did the Miele Guide come about?

A few years ago, some of Asia’s food writers, chefs and restaurateurs were tapped, with food writers, chefs and restaurateurs around the globe, to vote on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Two of the restaurant authorities tapped were husband and wife photographer, writer and editor tandem Aun Koh and Tan Su-Lyn of Singapore. When the results came out, they were disappointed to see that only five restaurants from Asia made it to the World’s 100 Best (not even the Top 50).

In his blog, chubbyhubby.net, Aun mused, “In addition to profiling the world’s top 50, Restaurant magazine also lists the next 50 (i.e. those ranked between 51-100). This year, only 5 restaurants in Asia made it to the top 100; all are ranked in the bottom half of the list. Bukhara, in India, at #55, continues to hold its place as Asia’s top-ranked restaurant. Iggy’s, in Singapore, is in second place, at #77.

“The next three Asian restaurants are all situated in Hong Kong. Pierre Gagnaire, Robuchon a Galera (technically in Macau) and Zuma are ranked at #88, #98, and #99 respectively… Each year, when these results are announced, I have the same reaction. While it is always cool to scan the top 10 or 20 restaurants and pat myself on the back for having visited several of them, the thing that irks me is the question, ‘Surely, Asia has more than just five world class restaurants?’”

In 2006, Chubbyhubby came up with his own survey of Asia’s best restaurants based solely on online voting through the chubbyhubby blog. Incidentally, the first comment on the post that revealed the results said, “Finally, indeed… what I would do for a luxe-style travel and pocket guide edition of this!”

Thus, the Miele Guide was born.

Controversial

Aun Koh said at the dinner, “We expect that this list will be controversial… we expect people to dispute the rankings and to criticize us. But the more people talk about our Top 20, the better. The overarching goal of The Miele Guide is to help the restaurant industry in Asia grow.”

Controversial or not, what we should note here is that the turnout from the Philippines was great. The international press especially took note of Antonio’s as they were surprised that a Filipino restaurant made the Top Ten.

Thanks in great part to our wonderful food blogging community (and to the fact that we Filipinos just really love food and dining out), a good number of Filipino restaurants made it to the Miele Guide.

Hopefully, with our best chefs at the helm of this voyage, we can become a destination not only for our beaches, but also for our food!

Philippine Entertainment Portal

Dating couple Geoff Rodriguez and Tisha Silang of the Philippines made it to the final leg of Amazing Race Asia 3 after finishing second in tonight’s episode. Tisha and Geoff will join Malaysia’s Ida and Tania, who stepped on the mat first, and Hong Kong boys Vince and Sam, who came in third place, in the 11th and final leg.

The finale episode of Amazing Race Asia 3 will be aired next Thursday, November 20, in AXN.

Amazing Race Asia 3 is the third installment of the popular reality game show, which is actually a spin-off of the Emmy award-winning reality show Amazing Race. It is hosted by Singapore-based Chinese-American actor Allan Wu.

Geoff and Tisha now have the chance to become the first team from the Philippines to win Amazing Race Asia and the $100,000 cash prize. They will also have the chance to erase or at least duplicate the third-place finish of Marc Nelson and Rovilson Fernandez last season.

Geoff and Tisha are actually good friends with Marc and Rovilson.

At the start of the 10th leg, Geoff and Tisha were in third place; behind the teams from Hong Kong and Malaysia. In fourth place was A.D. and Fuzzie of Singapore.

Geoff and Tisha were actually behind most of the 10th leg when they made some crucial errors. First was when they failed to answer correctly the year Mahatma Gandhi, India’s major spiritual and political leader, was born (1869). Then, in Detour (a task that all teams must perform), both Geoff and Tisha had a hard time counting the exact number of nuts inside a sack.

Luckily, all teams got lost going to the Roadblock (a task that only one member of the team can pefrorm) in Muscat, Oman, so Geoff and Tisha arrived there the same time as the other teams. Geoff also finished the Roadblock easily that enabled them to came in second, behind the team from Malaysia.

The team from Singapore, which finished last, got eliminated.

Amazing Race Asia 3 started with ten teams from different Asian countries, including India, South Korea, and Thailand. After each leg, one team gets eliminated, although there are pre-determined non-elimination legs.

Throughout the race, Geoff and Tisha made some enemies mainly because of Geoff’s attitude that turned off the other teams. It was also only Geoff and Tisha who chose to use the Yield and U-Turn against the other teams this season. A team that was yielded will have to wait for a pre-determined time before continuing the race, while the team that was U-Turned has to do the other detour that they did not previously completed.

Tisha was crowned Bb. Pilipinas-Universe in 1998 but resigned due to her Canadian citizenship. She also tried hosting before in some shows of GMA-7, including Mornings@GMA. Tisha also had a relationship with TV host Paolo Bediones.

Geoff, on the other hand, was a member of the all-male group Powerboys, which also included Jordan Herrera, Frank Garcia, Greg martin, and Jay Salas.

Philippine Entertainment Portal

Just a few days after winning two awards in the 6th International Pacific Meridian Film Festival in Russia, Brillante Mendoza was once again honored in an international film fest. Brillante, first-time filmmaker Francis Xavier Pasion, and John Torres were among the directors who won in the recently concluded Bangkok International Film Festival.

The sixth edition of the Bangkok IFF took place from September 23 to 30 in Thailand. Ferdy Lapuz, one of the producers of Serbis, say that this film won the Golden Kinnaree Award in the Southeast Asian competition at the Bangkok IFF. Serbis shows the life of a family who operate a run-down movie house showing sex flicks in Pampanga. Gina Pareño, Julio Diaz, Jaclyn Jose, Coco Martin, and Kristoffer King are some of the stars who topbill this award-winning film.

The Cinemalaya 2008 entry Jay, directed by Francis Xavier Pasion, bagged the Special Mention Award in the main competition category. Baron Geisler and Coco Martin appear in this film about a TV producer creating a documentary about a homosexual teacher.

John Torres’ Years When I was A Child Outside won special mention in the Southeast Asian competition. This 2007 Cinemanila International Film Festival entry is also known for its alternative title is Taon noong ako’y anak sa labas.

According to the official website of the Bangkok IFF, the Golden Kinnaree Award “symbolizes the creative spirit—looking to the future, while respecting the achievements and traditions of the past—flying between the worlds of reality and imagination.” This award was won by Brillante Mendoza for Serbis.

The winners were chosen by a six-member jury panel, including Thailand-based, Lao-Australian-ethnic actor Ananda Everingham, Swedish festival artistic director Martial Knaebel and Singaporean director Eric Khoo. The Bangkok IFF has two divisions: the main competition and Southeast Asian competition, each featuring 10 films from the world and the region.

The Bangkok IFF screened around 80 films from over 40 countries during its week-long run.

GMA News

MANILA, Philippines — Eight months of rigid training finally resulted in a bountiful harvest for the University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors (UPSA), who returned home on Tuesday with 12 awards from prestigious choral competitions in Europe.

UPSA bagged awards from five different choral competitions in France, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, and Wales in the United Kingdom.

The awards include two grand prizes, seven 1st prizes, three 3rd prizes, plus five grand prize qualifications.

In an interview with GMA News’ 24 Oras program, UPSA founder and conductor Ed Manguiat said he never doubted that his group would not return home empty-handed becayse of the time and effort they poured into the undertaking long before their journey.

“Of course, before the competition everybody was nervous but definitely we’re already on,” Manguiat said in an interview with GMANews’ reporter Aubrey Carampel.

“We always did our best … that’s why we won first prizes and grand prizes,” Manguiat added.

He said the group underwent eight months of strict rehearsals before jumping into the competition proper.

“We studied about 70 difficult songs and then in one competition we even sang about 24 songs and everything was difficult.”

The group even rehearsed singing in different languages, like French, Hungarian, German, and Italian, the report said.

The group also hinted a double celebration following the triumph of their member, Gretchen Espina, the 20-year-old girl who was crowned as the country’s very first Pinoy Idol.

Pinoy Idol is a reality-based singing competition produced by GMA Network and FreeMantle — a franchise of the hit reality show American Idol.

As ambassadors, the group also staged a concert in Europe in their bid to promote goodwill, the report said.

The UPSA was initially formed as the Kalayaan Choral Crowd, a freshman dormitory choir of the Kalayaan Residence Hall at the University of the Philippines’ Diliman campus. It was later reorganized as the University of the Philippines Singing Ambassadors in 1980.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

ASEAN karting queen Michele Bumgarner made history in the Rock Island Grand Prix in Illinois by becoming the first female champion in the world’s largest street kart racing event.

Bumgarner bagged the Tag Seniors crown, also earning her the distinction as the seventh foreign-born winner in the event’s 14-year history.

With the victory, the media is now making comparison of her to Danica Patrick, who also emerged the first female champion of Rock Island’s counterpart, the Indy Racing League, last April.

The 19 year old bet surprised everyone as a first-timer in the event when she piloted the Margay Team to a 1-2-3-4 finish and clocked 11 minutes and 24.144sec.

Teammate Kyle Erdmann came in 0.916sec behind for second place, while Scott Hamble and Brett Johnson finished third and fourth places, respectively.

For years, the Rock Island Grand Prix has been known as a stepping stone to barge into the Indy Racing League (IRL) and has drawn hundreds of entries annually from all over the world, including Argentina, Bermuda, Colombia, Costa Rica, England, France, Italy and Mexico as well as Canada and the United States.

“This will stick with me my whole career. Everyone goes on about how great this race is and it’s special that this is my first time here and my first win here. I hope to come back,” said Bumgarner, who credited the support of Margay’s experienced crew that includes crew chief and former RIGP champ Rick Fulks and RIGP’s winningest racer until last year Jason Birdsell.

Bumgarner is also backed up by Petron XCS, Spectrum-OSO Asia, Department of Tourism, Molecule, City Kart Racing, Oakley and Goodyear.

“I’ve got fantastic support here,” Bumgarner said. “How could I not be up front?”

Even RIGP officials were impressed, predicting a promising racing career for Bumgarner who’s planning to move to Indianapolis to pursue hopes of going the Indy Racing League route by the end of the year.

“I think she has a pretty bright career ahead of her, and it depends on how that career goes,” RI Grand Prix president Roger Ruthhart said. “It served us well when Scott Speed went on to Formula One, with him saying how he had been a Rock Island Grand Prix champion. It could be the same thing with Michele.”

Bumgarner didn’t come to Rock Island with expectations to win. But the media already speculated her historic feat after posting a top qualifying speed of 33.096 seconds that made her the first female pole-winner in RIGP history.

“I didn’t come here intending to be a trailblazer, but it’s an extra perk,” she said. “What I know is, it was going to be a close race to the end.”