President Ramon Magsaysay, savior of PH participation in '54 world cage tourney
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 31 Aug 2018
President Magsaysay.
One-hundred and 11 years ago on Wednesday, Ramon Magsaysay, fondly called ?My Guy? by his countrymen, was born. He was inaugurated President of the Philippines on December 30, 1953.
A year after assumption of office, President Magsaysay presided over the country?s preparation and participation in three memorable moments in Philippine sports that earned for us honors and respect from elsewhere all over the world.
On May 1 to 8 in 1954, the mechanic-turned Head of State opened the Second Asian Games at the then newly-refurbished Rizal Memorial Stadium that opened a new chapter in the Philippines? diplomatic relations with its neighbors within the region through sports.
Six months later, the Chief Executive saved the country?s participation in the Second Men?s World Basketball Championship by intervening in a fiasco that saw the national team leaving for Rio de Janeiro, site of the tournament, without skipper Lauro ?The fox? Mumar.
On December 18-26, the Philippines crowned itself the Baseball Federaion of Asia champion for the first and only time in the history of the sport in the region.
Had the late former President Ramon Magsaysay, whose 108th birth anniversary the country commemorated Monday, Aug. 31, alive today, he could have intervened in the current controversy involving players not willing to play for the national team competing in the Olympic qualifying FIBA-Asia championship later this month.
The Guy?s intervention in the controversy involving Mumar, many believed, allowed team captain to join his teammates in Rio that saved the country's participation in the world tourney where the Filipino dribblers ended up third, the best ever by any Asian nation in the International Basketball Federation history.
Mumar missed the Nationals' flight to the United States when he failed to show up at the Manila International Airport. The Filipinos were to play a series of tune up games before proceeding to Rio. The team captain, thus, failed to lead his teammates in all the six games against selected American squads.
That misdemeanor almost cost Mumar's career as a player as the then sports ruling body Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation (PAAF) immediately banned him for participating in all sports for life for "failing to honor an international commitment and conduct unbecoming of an athlete of national stature."
The controversy, as expected, became a national issue.
The late sportswriter Eddie Ticzon of the Roces family owned MANILA TIMES wrote a story on the "missing Fox" whose only fault, Ticzon reported, "was his having been born poor, unlike the other members of the basketball aristocracy."
The PAAF faux pas caught the attention of President Magsaysay, also known as the "champion of the masses," who took interest on the case of Mumar.
Both Houses of Congress, led by then congressman Arsenio Lacson, who was to become Mayor of Manila, along with Sen. Lorenzo Ta?ada, a former national football player, conducted an investigation and denounced "the oppression of the oppressed (Mumar)" by the high lords of basketball.
President Magsaysay, for his part, summoned Mumar to Malaca?ang where the suspended athlete told him: "Ako po ay mahirap lamang. The last I joined the national team to the London Olympics in 1948, all I had in my pocket was $2. Right now, I have not even paid my apartment rent."
Mumar said he was hoping his parents in Bohol would send him little money, but they were too hard up, they failed to raise his needed funding.
"I told basketball officials that I'd just follow the team a soon as the money arrives but nobody simply cared to listen," Mumar explained to the President. "They suspended me without due process."
Magsaysay took over from there. He called a public hearing held at the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel and, as a result, the PAAF reversed its decision and lifted Mumar's lifetime suspension.
Basketball fans conducted a fund raising campaign to raise money for Mumar to be able to join his teammates, who by that time had won just three of their six-game preparation program in the U.S.
Mumar could only join though in the Nationals' final tune-up game in Florida where they battled fellow-World Championship-bound Cuba in a 47-45 close but ego-boosting encounter.
Cuban basketball high priests took the loss to a crew of little-known "Brown Dolls" as a catastrophe they decided to forgo participation in the World Championship.
Mumar, meanwhile, whose playing career nearly ended due to a sorry case of miscommunication, was a resurrection personified.
He went on to preside over the Philippine campaign that was rewarded with a bronze medal, winning seven of its assignment, six in the championship round, and losing only to the eventual champion U.S. and Brazil (twice)
Teammate Carlos Loyzaga was named member of the World Mythical Selection as an added highlight in the country's most successful campaign in the World Championship.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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