Aces for Philippines sports

Brilliant shotmaking

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines hosted its biggest golf tournament in three decades and Miguel Tabuena rose to the occasion, scoring an ace for the home boys.

With the $2-million International Series Philippines held at his home club, Sta. Elena Golf and Country Club, Tabuena was in the spotlight all throughout, in the company of major winners Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed.

And the Filipino Olympian golfer came through.

Tabuena strung up brilliant rounds of 69-65-65-65, spiked by an ace and four eagles, to score a three-stroke win, his first in the International Series, a string of elevated golf events on the Asian Tour.

The emotional triumph witnessed by adoring supporters was worth $360,000 but its value in putting Philippine golf back on the map and restoring confidence among Pinoy parbusters was priceless.

Being IS champ on home ground also gave Tabuena a shot at the “golden tickets” to LIV Golf that awaited the Top 2 players in the IS Rankings at the end of the season.

Tabuena went on to finish third with 260.05 ranking points behind topnotcher Scott Vincent (335.11) and second placer Yosuke Asaji (285.30), falling short of promotion. He also finished No. 3 in the Asian Tour Order of Merit with 1,402.77 points.

Still, the 18-event campaign in 2025 was a massive success for Tabuena, who broke through $3 million in career earnings on the Tour – yet another major milestone.

Pool mastery rolls on

The Philippines remained as an epicenter of the billiards universe in 2025 – thanks mainly to the supernova performances by Chezka Centeno, Carlo Biado and an unheralded Jonas Magpantay.

In just a year, the country produced three world champions.

Biado took the WPA World 9-ball crown in July in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he bested the fearsome Fedor Gorst, 15-13, while Centeno topped the WPA Women’s 10-ball tilt in October in Bali, Indonesia where she defeated her mentor and friend – and a former world champion herself – Rubilen Amit, 3-2.

Making it a trifecta was Magpantay, who came out of nowhere to snatch the Qatar 10-ball World Cup in Doha, Qatar after downing Poland’s Szymon Kural, 13-9.

Centeno had a chance to add two but she fell to Austrian assassin Jasmin Ouschan, 9-8, and ended up runner-up in the WPA World 8-ball Championship in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and wound up as a quarterfinalist in the World 9-ball event in Jacksonville, Florida.

Obiena four-peat

An Asian dynasty up in the clouds.

EJ Obiena, in 2025, retained a comfortable view at the summit of the continental pole vault scene, completing a hat trick on top of a four-peat in the Southeast Asian Games.

The 30-year-old vaulter cleared 5.77 meters in May in South Korea to keep the crown that he captured in the 2019 and 2023 editions. Overall, it’s his fourth Asian medal counting a bronze in 2017, which ignited his rise.

His three straight Asian titles further cemented his status as the continent’s yardstick, being also the reigning holder of the Asian record with 6.00m he achieved twice in 2023, one in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest where he netted a historic silver medal behind Duplantis.

And if Asia has been the fun playground for the former Santo Tomas Tiger, the Southeast Asian play has been a walk in the park for eight years running now.

Obiena leapt to 5.70m in the Bangkok SEA Games, beating home bet Amsamarang Patsapong via countback. It was a new meet record, surpassing his own mark of 5.65m set in Cambodia in 2023,

The two milestones healed the wound of a heartbreaker when he missed out on a ticket to the 2025 Worlds Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, a year after a fourth-place finish in the Paris Olympics.

And another healer? A gold medal at home in a world-sanctioned Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge held before adoring fans at the Ayala Triangle Gardens.

The legend returns

Manny Pacquiao took a crack at boxing history and battled a young Mexican champion for 12 rounds. But he fell short – one good round short – in the eyes of the judges.

The Filipino legend, at 46, tried to become the oldest welterweight champion and performed way beyond expectations. Many felt he did enough, more than enough, to beat Mario Barrios in July at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

But the judges saw it otherwise, one scoring it 115-113 for the 30-year-old Mexican, and the two others submitting identical 114-114 cards for a majority draw. And Barrios flew home to San Antonio, Texas with the WBC welterweight belt over his shoulder.

Three months later, Pacquiao presented a card to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ali-Frazier Thrilla in Manila fight.

Melvin Jerusalem was featured in the mainer, keeping his WBC mini-flyweight title with a unanimous decision versus South African Siyakholwa Kuse. Earlier in the year, Jerusalem scored the same verdict opposite Japanese Yudai Shigeoka in Tokoname, Japan.

Pedro Taduran was another pro fighter with a glorious year, keeping his IBF mini flyweight title with a split decision versus old Japanese rival Ginjiro Shigeoka in Osaka, Japan in May then a unanimous decision opposite countryman Christian Balunan at the San Andres Sports Complex in October.

Sizzlers, Dazzlers still

Pro leagues in the Philippines led by “golden boy” PBA, flourished in 2025.

Asia’s first play-for-pay league marked its golden anniversary with a series of activities, highlighted by the awarding of the latest batch of the “50 Greatest Players,” a grand homecoming, a retro game between San Miguel and Meralco, and overseas gigs in Dubai and Manama.

Fresh from retaining the Season 49 Governors’ Cup crown in late 2024, the TNT Tropang 5G annexed the Commissioner’s Cup for a shot at a rare grand slam. However, the Beermen stopped the Chot Reyes-coached squad in its quest for the third jewel in the season-ending Philippine Cup.

For its eighth season, the PVL aligned its calendar with that of the FIVB with competitions held in two calendar years, beginning November 2024 and ending a year later.

The season saw the rise of the Petro Gazz Angels and the PLDT High Speed Hitters as PVL royalties. The Angels ruled the opening All-Filipino Conference and the culminating Reinforced Conference while the High Speed Hitters dominated the PVL On Tour and the Invitational Conference in between.

The UAAP’s 88th season served as platform for UP and DLSU to show their character in rising from woeful starts (0-2 and 2-3, respectively) to set the third chapter of their finals trilogy. In the end, it was the Green Archers who prevailed, 2-1, dethroning the Fighting Maroons with an 80-71 verdict in front of a 24,339-strong crowd at the Big Dome.

For its 101st season, the NCAA implemented a new format consisting of a group stage with the Top 3 teams of Groups A and B advancing to the quarterfinals with twice-to-beat advantage and the fourth and fifth ranked in each bracket proceeding to a play-in to dispute the last seat to the quarters. When the dust cleared, San Beda returned to the throne on the strength of its 2-0 sweep of Letran in the finals.

In its fourth season as a pro league, the MPBL ran its regular season from March to September with the next three months devoted to the playoffs and finals. The Abra Solid North Weavers, led by Season MVP Dave Ildefonso and Finals MVP Jason Brickman, reigned supreme after defeating the Quezon Huskers, 2-1.

A triumph for Philippine sports

Filipino athletes threaded new paths, conquered new territories and etched their names in the annals of the global sporting wars. Then there’s a big, big win for them all won in the court of law.

With “finality,” the Supreme Court denied the appeal of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. on the 2024 ruling that mandates the latter to remit five percent of its gross annual income in full to the Philippine Sports Commission, thanks to a petition by former Pampanga Congressman Yeng Guiao.

It wasn’t a victory for the PSC (now under Chairman Patrick Gregorio) alone but for every Filipino athlete – from the aspiring ones in the grassroots level to the striving ones in the elite national team level.

The SC ruling means that a Batang Pinoy swimmer from all the way up north in Batanes, a Palarong Pambansa trackster from down south in Tawi-Tawi, a Southeast Asian Games boxer, an Asian Games weightlifter or an Olympian gymnast can now count on millions of extra funds yearly for training facilities, allowances and incentives in local and international competitions, as well as the luxury of having world-class coaches and training programs.

The total combined funding owed by both PAGCOR for 32 years and PCSO for 19 years to the PSC is projected to hit around P33 billion, which could do wonders for the welfare of the Filipino athletes.

“It was a long, hard struggle but it’s a victory for Philippine sports,” said seven-time PBA champion coach Guiao.

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