19th to 20th April:
The Italian icon Roberto Baggio is one of the legends of world football, and he has nothing at all to do with the northern Filipino city of Baguio. But Spirit of Football’s ball-carriers Joaquin Nanez and Andrew Aris couldn’t help but naming Baguio “Baggio” in his honour. Baguio is a beautiful middle-sized city set in foothills with a pleasant temperature and surrounded by forest. For the Spirit team it was a break from the overwhelming and relentless heat of South-East-Asian summer that had taken its toll on them in the past 2 months. It was also time to meet the spiritual home of Spirit of Football’s Filipino Ambassadors Valeree and Carl and to meet-up with the football for good clubs they actively support (Baguio F.C. and Barrio F.C) and to meet and greet with local decision-makers.
Valeree and Carl have long been involved in football: Carl initially as a player at the University of the Philippines, then as a coach, and both of them in the organising of grassroots football in Baguio for the past 15 years. After attempting to set-up club and school football leagues, and losing to Bureaucracy many times over, they decided to go in another direction: Football for development. This avenue provides more independence and has allowed them to cooperate with UNICEF and La Liga in places like Cebu and Cagayan de Oro in the south of the Philippines. These days they are training up young people to take responsibility for running their own football clubs: from running training sessions through to designing logos and creating social media content. They provide these youngsters with skills and a toolkit and share with them their vast knowledge and experience.
And so it was that The Ball and its Ambassadors along with Dexter See, President of the Baguio Football Club, went on a quick fire meet and greet with local indigenous dignitaries: Melchor D. Diclas, M.D., Governor of the Province of Benguet signed The Ball in his office in the state capital and pledged to plant trees and maintain renewable energy. Next up was Roderick Chiok Awingan, Vice Mayor of the Municipality of La Trinidad, who pledged the following:
We commit as a local government unit and as a community to do all necessary things so that we can combat climate change in this part of the world. Isang Bulo, Isang Mundo! (One Ball, One World!)
One final stop was at the energy company BENECO, where acting general Manager Engr Ramel Rifani was happy to sign The Ball and pledge to continue to build renewable energy plants to support One Ball, One World. He also symbolically handed over the keys to the driver (Mike Santos) of the van that BENECO had sponsored to take The Ball and its team to Sagada the next day on a 6-hour journey to the indigenous communities in the Mountain Province municipality.
Finally, it was time to run a session with 30+ children and youth from Barrio F.C. The FairPlay session was supported by youth volunteers from Baguio F.C., including Pedro who had previously taken part in SOF’s TOT in Manilla. As part of the session, the four teams were introduced to The Ball and asked to undertake climate actions to support their local environment. In just 30 minutes 5 large plastic bags were filled with rubbish that was collected from around the football pitch as well as in the nearby forest. Finally, the children were invited to sign The Ball and to eat pastries sponsored by the local bakery Palaganas. Buddhist Roberto Baggio would surely have been proud of this climate action and the young people’s pledges to continue to take care of the environment through football.
