Postcard from Mactan...H-Five-O
By Emmanuel Rivera, RRT
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 19 Apr 2020
(April 17, 2020)
Lapu-Lapu City, Mactan Island, Philippines
“Hello from Cebu and Mactan! Wish you were here...Lovingly, Papa,“ the postcard my family got in 1982 said.
Mactan island represents Philippine history at its finest, a magical place with warm locals that easily rekindle Pinoy nationalistic fervor.
It was the site of the first super fight on Philippine soil.
It was on these shores Chief Lapu-Lapu led the first Filipinos in defeating the mighty Spanish Armada and their captain Ferdinand Magellan on April 27, 1521.
The thought leads one back to an age old question…one that is best answered apolitically.
How come after about 100 years in the fight game and a plethora of world-class boxing champions, we, as Filipinos, never had a Philippine Boxing Hall of Fame?
Is it even important to start one?
There must be others who pondered such thoughts.
Where to begin.
The following narrative is my ambitious attempt to get the conversation going in developing and creating one.
It also serves as a retrospective on past conversations with my father about the history of fighters the American press used to call Little Brown Dolls.
The prototype museum, located in my hotel accommodations at the moment, is the most secure and sanitary offering for the greatest Filipino fighters, available for everyone near and willing to join me in Lapu-Lapu City until May 3, 2020 (for a very limited time and by appointment only).
For our boxing friends able to visit, we encourage you to practice physical (social) distancing, diligent hand hygiene, wear face masks and PPE and have a quarantine pass to get through multiple checkpoints within curfew time limits.
All inquiries and comments are welcome.
EmmanuelRiveraRRT@gmail.com
JPark Island Resort & Waterpark Mactan, Cebu
M.L. Quezon Highway
Barangay Maribago
Lapu-Lapu City
Cebu, Philippines
+6332.494.5000
Mactan and the entire archipelago is amidst an Enhanced Community Quarantine (i.e. lockdown) aimed to contain and hopefully defeat a formidable foe that demands caution and respect—the novel Covid-19 virus.
Given that most businesses, including the post office, here are closed, I’d like to try an electronic postcard via PhilBoxing.com, PinoyGreats.com and HTTP —HyperText Transfer Protocol—courtesy of our esteemed editor-in-Chief Mr. Dong Secuya.
Though it’s a day or two late, I hope my family back in the San Francisco Bay Area in California finds this message well.
They called him Hermie—short for Hermenegildo Ordoña Rivera.
But for a few members of Malacañang’s inner sanctum many moons ago, he was simply H-Five-O.
He was and forever will be Apo Lakay’s inimitable multi-media man—one who, for more than half a century in journalism, mastered the art of communication in radio, television and print before computers and cable took over our lives.
For the late former Minister of Information Gregorio Cendaña and the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, Mr. Eduardo Manuel Mortero and Mr. Milton Alingod, he was a loyal and capable public servant.
He was the media representative of the Filipino people to the Western press in Oahu, Hawaii and later San Francisco, California in the early and late nineteen-eighties.
“The Filipino culture is one we must nurture, treasure and remember. The Filipino is who we are until our last breath, “he used to say. “If by chance you’ve settled down elsewhere in the world, come visit the Philippines often. The Filipino experience, shall I say, is unforgettable.”
Hermie Rivera left at us at age 77, four years ago on January 15, 2016.
There’s just a thing or two I may have implied to him but never really said.
“Thank you, Pa, for being a good father and loving husband to mom and doting GramPa. I appreciate your wit, wisdom and thoughtful nature evident in your life’s work and words from your friends. I hope you like our dream museum. Happy Birthday! I love you and I miss you...Loving Son, Noel.”
Cc:
Tony, Charina, Christine and Billy, Andy, Jay, Bethany, Grant, Louis, Stacie, Leila, Niko
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