Having Lunch on Taxpayer’s Money

After only a few hours of sleep on early Saturday morning, I had to wake up to attend a luncheon event at the Asia Hotel. The host of this event is President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Guests included the Filipino athletes who were already there for the Olympics as well as the flag bearer Mr. Manny Pacquiao and his “inspiration” Jinkee.

The event started at 11am with dancing from a Chinese group and the introduction of the athletes with the ‘standard’ Olympic Cheer introduced by China (heh!). My friend, Marco hosted the first part of the event while waiting for President Arroyo to arrive. Congressmen and members of the cabinet arrived a few minutes earlier than Arroyo. I was seated with the Congressman from Pampanga and Leyte. Tito Sotto was also there looking tough as the head of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Chavit Singson was also there sharing seats beside the Pacman.

When the President arrived, Consular Leyda introduced a cause which they would like to promote that day, the “World Simultaneous Breastfeeding Event”. The person in charge was quite passionate with her cause that she even encourages mothers to have their children breastfed till 6 years old. (EWW! 6?! Di na yun baby!) They’ve held Guinness Book of World Records on the most number of breastfeeding mother-child pair in one and simultaneous event. They presented a medal to the policewoman in Sichuan who breastfed 9 infants in the aftermath of the earthquake.

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Beijing Olympics: Philippines Athletes Update

It’s Day 4 in Beijing and the weather is perfect for sightseeing and outdoor sports. Tourist should be cautious as one American was already stabbed to death last Saturday at the Drum Tower. As for our athletes, only Miguel Molina was seen in action today at 7:28pm at the Water Cube.

Molina swam in the 2nd heat of the 200m breaststroke preliminaries. He clocked in at 2:16.94 to finish 6th on his heat. He wasn’t able to match his personal best of 2:16.62 which he registered in the Janet Evans International Invitational last July in California. There goes his dream but he’ll get another chance tomorrow in the 200m individual medley preliminaries.

So for a recap, out of the 15 athletes, three already are out of the medal running. Tomorrow will be a big day as four athletes will see action most importantly Harry Tanamor’s match against Plange at 8:15pm (not 8:45pm as previously announced).

For Day 5 updates, click this link.   For Olympic Park and some Games pictures, click this link.