2009 12/09-12/15

MANILA MAIL COMMUNITY

The Winner Takes It All. Boxing's greatest, Manny 'Pacman' Pacquiao, right, shown here visiting theBay Area during his Cotto fight media tour with trainer, Freddie Roach, demanded and got most of his wants, on his March 13th, 2010 bout against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. No venue was picked yet. Photo by Vince Monasterio

FourPlay Ladies, comprises of Bay-Area based Shalimar Santiago, Trisha Badong, Carlen Ocampo & Noelle Bonus, all young, beautiful, sexy and impressively talented, was presented to the press and public, for the very first time at the SRO-packed Intramuros Music Hall last Sunday night.

The Victor's of Holy Angel College 'Dream Reunion' in Munich, Germany- (L-R) Renato Franco, Tito Servando & batchmate/wife Roseminda Garcia-Servando, JV Ibe/wife Yuyu Ibe, Ofelia Balboa, CynthiaOcampo, Yolanda Garcia, Marilou Beltran-Ayao, & batchmate/husband Ely Ayao

Her 2nd World Title. Daly City's Ana 'The Hurricane' Julaton lands a right hook, one of several, on South Carolina's Donna Biggers at their main event held at HP Pavilion San Jose last Friday night, that won her the WBO Super Bantamweight title, her 2nd in less than 3 months. She last captured the IBA Super Bantam Title in an upset victory last September 12th also this year. Photo by Vince Monasterio

It's Official! After subtly making his intentions known to his constituents, Manila Mail Newspaper Publisher, Ruben Bunag finally filed his Certificate of Candidacy making his bid official for Councilor of Tondo, Manila's District 2. Good luck, Bossing!

Christian Enriquez, center, celebrated his 8th birthday last Saturday, in San Ramon with brother Sean, rightmost back and friends.

Santana Row Designer Bong Deiparine, left and Santana Row resident Agnes Aguirre, center, formed OnStage Promotion to present PDA Tour 2009 with Miguel Mendoza, Irish Fullerton and Hansen Nichols performing at the Intramuros Music Hall this Thursday, Dec 10th at 8:00pm. Also shown here is Richard Lao of San Ramon.

PDA Scholar Irish Fullerton of the City of Tracy, performs a rousing number at her 'Irish-Nite To Remember' concert in Livermore, CA produced by Pittsburg's Fernand and Susan Tanedo last Saturday night.

Ms. Jett Viray-Navarro, the Grand Lady of Club Royale International, a Bay-area based charitable foundation, will hold its annual gala at the newly-renovated Marriott Marquis San Francisco this Saturday night, December 12th at 8pm.

Power-broker Thez Santos of San Francisco, watched and enjoyed FoulPlay Ladies at the IntramurosMusic Hall last Sunday night.

Pacquaio vs. Mayweather On March 13th

Now, it’s half official as Manny Pacquiao, 31, has reportedly signed a contract (after two hours of negotiations) last Friday with his Mega Promoter Bob Arum (he flew back to the US last Sunday) at the New World Hotel in the City of Makati, to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr., in boxing's biggest fight on March 13, according to reliable sources.

No word yet if Floyd Mayweather, who has agreement with Golden Boy Promotions, signed anything.

Based on preliminary information on this scheduled mega-hyped fight, it seems that Pacquiao had dictated the most important aspects of the fight (based on these, I therefore conclude he’s ‘winning’ already..hehehe…):

- Pacquaio okayed the final March 13^th, 2010 date. Originally and ideally, the other members of both camps and the HBO PPV people wanted May 1^st, which coincides with the election season in the Philippines , when Pacquaio runs for a congressional seat in his hometown in Sarangani. This will scale-down the scheduled fight media tour, to just a single press conference in New York , in the second week of January. That’s it.

- Pacquaio dictated the 50/50 purse split. During the Pacquiao-Cotto International Media Conference held at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas last November 14^th this year, Arum told the entire room (this columnist included) that if Mayweather wants a 65/35 split – this fight won’t even see fruition.

- Pacquaio’s representative Top Rank Promotions, will get top billing throughout the promotion period. For promotional purposes though, the bout will be referred to as Mayweather-Pacquiao.

- the fight will take place at the weight limit of 147 pounds for Pacquiao's welterweight title

- Pacquiao will select the brand of his agreed upon, official 8-ounce gloves he will wear for the fight. Mayweather will select his.

Pacquiao is estimated to gross at least $30 Million for this gargantuan undertaking, with many experts expecting the fight to surpass the all-time pay-per-view record for sales, which is the 2.44 million buys sold by Mayweather's 2007 trimph against boxing’s then Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya.

In contrast, the Pacquiao-Cotto gave the Filipino fighter approximately $22 Million paycheck, according to published quotes from Arum. It sold 1.25 Million Pay-Per-Views equivalent to roughly $70 Million.

The hugeness of this fight has attracted other mega-personalities in the business, the likes of Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones expressing a lot of interest in bringing the fight to his new Dallas stadium. In addition, the Superdome of New Orleans also had sent representatives to court the promoters to bring the fight over there. In Las Vegas , the MGM Grand Arena as well as another group of mega-casino developers submitted proposals for a 30,000-seat temporary stadium on the Las Vegas Strip across from the Wynn resort. As of press time, the big boys are still playing tug-of-wars.

In my lifetime, never had I imagined that a fellow Filipino will be the prized subject of a tug-of-war of business heavyweights, in the world’s center stage of sports entertainment.

SFIG Makes WTA List Of Fast Twenty Teleport Operators Of 2009

Northern California’s premier gateway teleport among new entrants

from Canada , Jordan , Italy , Singapore and Norway

ABS-CBN International’s San Francisco International Gateway (SFIG), Northern California ’s most versatile international satellite uplink station, achieved a milestone by making the list of the global “Fast Twenty” teleport operators of the World Teleport Association (WTA) in 2009. The Fast Twenty ranks all of the world’s teleport-operating companies based on year-over-year revenue growth in their most recent fiscal years.

SFIG is a new entrant to the Fast Twenty and ranked number 20. It joins other new entrants that include Telesat ( Canada ), Jordan Media City ( Jordan ), M-Three Satcom ( Italy ), Singapore Telecom ( Singapore ) and Telenor Satellite Broadcasting ( Norway ). Taking the number one spot is Europe Media Port ( Cyprus ) with an impressive 120% growth rate.

SFIG is a remarkable turnaround success story. ABS-CBN International, the U.S.-based subsidiary of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, one of Asia ’s largest multimedia conglomerates, purchased the struggling teleport facility from Loral Skynet in March 2006. In just over two years, SFIG has become profitable by serving a niche market of ethnic programmers from its facilities in Richmond , California and Manila , Philippines .

“SFIG’s business grew as a result of our intent to maximize the utilization of assets that ABS-CBN has. We have initially focused on the area where we have an advantage: by virtue of our California location and the capabilities of our Asian teleport, we are in the best position to provide transport services for customers to and from Asia,” said Sherry Ann Supelana, head of SFIG and ABS-CBN Global’s Director of Engineering and Technical Services.

The satellite communications facility recently completed technology upgrades and the launch of “triple play” services for voice, video and data services to global customers. SFIG expanded its fiber network and network monitoring system to better support voice and data services via the internet in addition to providing transport services for the program content of its customers. It has also offered video and audio production and post-production services through its state-of-the-art full-service studio located in Redwood City .

“Our goal is to make SFIG a total solutions provider, providing end-to-end services that are tailored for our customer’s special requirements,” said Supelana. SFIG remains one of the few independent and multi-platform capable operators in the world.

SFIG will join some 300 vendors at the National Religious Broadcasters 2010 Exposition in Nashville , Tennessee from February 27-March 2 (Booth # 661) and Satellite 2010, an event that promises to attract thousands on March 15-18 (Booth # 1251) to National Harbor , Maryland .

The Top Operator Rankings of WTA, which includes the Global Top Twenty and Independent Top Twenty categories, are compiled by surveying teleport operators around the world on their facilities, services and business results. The complete rankings are available on WTA’s website (www.worldteleport.org). Click on the 2009 Top Operators link on the News menu.

SEEN IN THE CITY

Daly City’s Ana ‘The Hurricane’ Hulaton Wins WBO Title

In just her 8^th career bout, Daly City-owned Ana ‘The Hurricane’ Julaton beat the crap out of Donna Biggers of South Carolina last Friday night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose , CA , winning the WBO Super Bantamweight title by unanimous decision. This is Ana’s 2^nd title win in less than three months, fresh from her IBA Super Bantamweight title upset victory last September 12, 2009 against Kelsey Jeffries. Looking like a tougher version of Viva Hot Babe, Andrea Del Rosario in person, she is surely ascending the boxing greatness. Another one of those Pacquiao-in-the-making stories.

Congratulations, Ana!

Marriott SFO is Now Marriott Marquis

The newly-renovated San Francisco Marriott, with its wider and more impressively decorated lobby and meeting space, has re-branded itself as the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, it announced last month in its website.

The hotel, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is only the fifth Marriott hotel to bear the prestigious "Marquis" moniker, bestowed by Marriott onto only its largest and most upscale meetings hotels. It joins two existing Marriott Marquis properties in Atlanta and New York 's Times Square, and two others that are currently under development in Nashville and Washington , D.C.

Bay-Area based charitable organization, the Club Royale International, is holding its famous annual gala event at the Marriott Marquis on Saturday, December 12^th, 2009 in commemoration of the occassion, organized by the foundation’s Grand Lady, Ms. Jett-Viray Navarro and the hotel’s Executive Sales Director, Mr. Dirk Wilhem Hinse.

Located near San Francisco 's Moscone Convention Center , the hotel has 1,499 guest rooms and over 117,000 square feet of meeting space that was recently made over as part a newly finished $15 million renovation. This winter, the hotel will commence even more improvements with a $22 million renovation of its 41,588-square-foot Yerba Buena Ballroom.

TO-BE-SEEN IN THE CITY

PDA DreamTour 2009 At Intramuros

Fresh from her very successful concert held at Livermore , CA last Saturday night, Pinoy Dream Academy (PDA) Scholar, City of Tracy-based Irish Fullerton will again be performing, this time with fellow PDA scholars both – Miguel Mendoza and Hansen Nichols at the Intramuros Music Hall on Thursday, December 10^th at 8:00 p.m.

Tickets are still available – call (925) 389-1382, (408) 242-7520, (408) 421-8914 or (707) 712-0574. This event is being produced by Santana Row resident Agnes Aguirre and Bong Deiparine of San Jose-based OnStage Production.

Reunion Fever!

FaceBook revolution had made all sorts of reunions (class, relatives, sororities, frats, etc) easy and painless. That’s why reunions are being held here and there regardless of time and distance. Just recently, a "dream reunion" became a reality.

The Holy Angel College - Angeles City , Philippines ’ Reunion Fever, quickly spread like epidemic among members of Holy Angel College (HAC) High School Batch '68 (known as the "Victors").

HAC B'68 members from the U.S. and Europe spent more than two weeks together and just like old times, had visited historical places in Europe .

The members had so much time, so reported the attendees. No wonder, another reunion is now on the planning stage, set to be held on May 29, 2010 in Las Vegas , no less. To all members of HAC B'68 in Angeles City , Philippines , contact Cynthia Ocampo either via phone (702) 353-3233 or email at cynergy1028@yahoo.com.

PERSONAL NOTES

Happy Birthday to San Ramon’s Christian Enriquez, who turned 8^th December 5th and celebrated with family and friends.

Happy 80^th Birthday to Mercedes Salazar of Fremont feted by her grandchildren with a lavish party complete with beautifully choreographed production numbers.

Quote of the Week – “Hindi na tayo bumabata (We’re not getting any younger),” by 7-division Title holder Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao, addressing concerns on the close date proximity of his bout with Mayweather (he last fought Cotto in November). Meaning, he would rather fight Mayweather now than wait longer, like next year or even just after the elections.

This column also appears online at http://sites.google.com/site/adkinsmmcevents/Home/

Do you have any personal or community events you want announced or published? Just email them to bradford_adkins@yahoo.com