As the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 kicks off in the Philippines today, three of the key officers from the PLDT group shared on how they were able to convince FIBA to bring the prestigious tournament to the Philippines. The three executives who pushed for this initiative are PLDT Chairman and SBP Chairman Emeritus Manuel V. Pangilinan, PLDT and Smart Communications President and CEO Alfredo S. Panlilio, and PLDT Chief Leadership Transition Officer and SBP Vice President Ricky Vargas.

 

For those not familiar about Panlilio’s love for basketball, he actually played the sport at a young age until he played in the Philippine Amateur Basketball League before rising the corporate ladder. Vargas, on the other hand, was a strong supporter of a team that faced off PLDT-backed Mobiline back in the day. Of course, it’s no secret that MCP is a strong supporter for basketball, as his mother Soledad played an important influence in his love for sports. 

In building the SBP, Pangilinan shared that they applied all the best practices, along with placing sectoral representatives from the youth, the pros, and women. It was hard work for MVP and his group to finalize the SBP–and even nearly experiencing an accident as they finalized the terms of agreement–all done on a table napkin in a hotel in Bangkok early morning.  

Despite the challenges that Philippine basketball encountered during those years, their shared love for the game and the country won FIBA over. “All of us in that delegation wanted to prove to FIBA that we can fix our house. We can’t fail the Philippines,” MVP said.

 

The SBP’s desire to attempt a bid for the 2019 World Cup was honed by placing a proposal for a regional event in 2014. “I felt we had a very good presentation. It was just us and China, and I think we really did a good job. We wore the Barong Tagalog with a heart embroidered on it, we had a very passionate, emotional presentation. In fact, even their Hall of Famer Yao Ming of China already congratulated the Philippines. Unfortunately, we lost the bid,” Panlilio recalled.

Despite losing the bid, the SBP did not give up. Instead, they came up with the idea for a multi-country hosting event after a few weeks or months. “They told us that it’s a creative approach. The rest is history,” MVP shared.

“Magic. It was just magic. We did not let go of the dream. Was there a specific formula? No. The team introduced itself to FIBA. FIBA understood our love for basketball,” Vargas said.

 

 

Fast forward to 2019, PLDT and Smart was announced to be a global sponsor of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, which will be held in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan from August 25 to September 10. “We want to leave the impression that they’re welcome to play in the Philippines, and we’ll give them the best experience that they can have. We would like to thank them for coming over and trusting us in co-hosting the whole thing,” Vargas shared.

“What we really wanted to do was to plow more fertile ground for legends to grow – to have our hard courts, our backboards and hoops, our fans bear witness to the story of Philippine basketball as it is written; to emphasize that this basketball-crazy country of ours belongs to the league of basketball nations, and for the Philippines to be a cradle of enduring legends,” Pangilinan adds.

You can catch the whole story on Sa Wakas FIBA sa ‘Pinas!, which premieres on September 2 on One News (6:30pm), One Sports / One Sports+ (7pm), and One PH (8pm). 

Basketball fans can purchase their FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 tickets for the Philippine Arena and the Smart-Araneta Coliseum games via ticketnet.com.ph, while tickets for the SM Mall of Asia Arena contests are available via smtickets.com.